
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Shelf .._K_-'74 








m^M^^ 



A WINTER 



IN 



INDIA AND MALAYSIA 



AMONG THE 



METHODIST MISSIONS 



/ / .i^. 



REY. M* Y'^B^HOX, Pli.D., D.D. 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

BISHOP JOHN F. HURST, D,D., LL.D. 




NEW YORK: HUNT &^ BATON 

CINCINNATI: CRANSTON &- STOWE 

iSgi 



Copyright, 1891, by 
HUNT & EATON. 

New York. 






PREFATORY NOTE. 



These letters are sent out with a hope that they 
may do some good for missions. It is also with the 
purpose that the fugitives may not be wholly lost that 
they are gathered into book-form, since gaining the 
facts they contain and writing them out were both 
pleasant and profitable to me. They were mostly 
written during the months of my passing through those 
sections of which they treat in a tour of the world. 
Should any income accrue from tlieir sales it is dedi- 
cated in advance to a certain field of mission work. I 
gladly acknowledge the valuable aid of Rev. Joseph H. 
Gill, for several years a missionary in India, in reading 
and correcting these letters. Also I here express my 
thanks to the editors of those periodicals in which many 
of them were printed in allowing this use of them from 
their columns. M. V. B. Knox. 



INTRODUCTION 



The author of A Winter in India and Malaysia is 
a busy pastor, and a faithful student of men and coun- 
tries. His lines of study had reached out widely, and 
for years he had utilized his spare time in a careful 
examination into the progress, the life, and the achieve- 
ments of the great nations of history. As his studies 
advanced he became keenly sensible of the need of a 
personal visit to distant nations yet in the darkness, or 
at best in the gray dawn of a new period. He saw 
India and Malaysia with the eye of a careful observer. 
He seems to have become absorbed, the farther he jour- 
neyed, in the missionary feeling, until in time his mis- 
sionary passion overpowered all else. In describing 
the life, architecture, and countries of India and Malay- 
sia he never once forgot the supreme need of the Gospel, 
or failed to appreciate the invaluable power of his own 
ecclesiastical body — the Methodist Episcopal Church- 
in sending a strong missionary force of men and women 
to hasten the coming of the glad day of universal evan- 
gelization. 

Dr. Knox's A Winter in India and Malaysia is so 
well written, so full of life and movement, and has so 
sprung out of the very experience and needs of the pastor 
at home, that they who read will hardly cease until they 



6 INTRODUGTIOK 

reach the end. Those who are asked to make contribu- 
tions of money for missions must know why the appeal 
is made. They must see the object, the true need. The 
author of this work aims to bring the country to us here 
at home, that we may better understand the absolute 
need of bestowing our best gifts of missionaries and 
gold for its redemption. 

I cordially recommend this work as a most valuable 
addition to our literature of the East. It should be cir- 
culated throughout the country. It should have a 
place on the pastor's table, in the Sunday-school library, 
and in the Christian homes in all parts of our land. 
Many of its pages abound in matter entirely new to 
our American readers. The book, however, is mostly 
to be prized for its intense and beautiful loyalty to the 
kingdom of the Christ. John F. Huest. 

Washington, D. C, Septemler 1, 1891. 



CONTENTS. 



LETTER PAGE 

I. Street Sights in Bombay 9 

11. My First Evening in Bombay 16 

III. Methodism in Bombay 20 

lY. A Thousand Miles' Run Through India 30 

V. In and About Delhi 37 

Yl. A Commencement Season in India 46 

YII. Into the Himalayas at Naini Tal 50 

YIII. At a Camp-meeting in India 57 

IX. Education Work in North India Conference 68 

X. In and About Muttra 15 

XT. At Agra 84 

XII. Nanak, the Punjab Reformer 95 

XIII. A Day among India's Paupers 101 

XIY. Annual Sunday-school Gala at Lucenow 105 

XY. Caste 112 

XYI. Religiousness of the Indian People 120 

XYII. Among the Missionaries at Shahjehanpore 128 

XYIII. A Day op Hunting in India 131 

XIX. The Birds of India 143 

XX. At the North India Conference 151 

XXI. The JSTative Races of India 160 



8 CONTENTS, 

LETTER PAGE 

XXII. Benares, the Holy City of the Hindus 169 

XXIII. The Work op the Woman's Foreign Missionary 

Society — Schools — Sunday-schools.. .'. 180 

XXIY. Woman's Work — Medical, Bible Readers, Dea- 
conesses 189 

XXV. Woman's Work — Zenana, Orphanages 198 

XXVI. The Question of Clothing and Homes 208 

XXVII. At the Bengal Conference 215 

XXVIII. Means of Locomotion 224 

XXIX. In the Matter of Servants 231 

XXX. The Future of Methodism in India 239, 

XXXI. The Methodist Press in India 246 

XXXII. At Calcutta 252 

XXXIII. Methodism in Rangoon, Burmah 262 

XXXIV. The Great Buddhist Pagoda at Rangoon 268 

XXXV. At Penang 280 

XXXVI. Across the Track of Mrs. Leayitt's Woman's 

Christian Temperance Union Work in India. . 286 

XXXVII. A Week with Our Missionaries at Singapore 292 

XXXVIII. A Day Under the Equator 298 

XXXIX. Qualifications FOR Successful Missionaries 303 



A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA 

AMOJSra THE 

METHODIST MISSIONS. 



LETTER I. 

STREET SIGHTS IN BOMBAY. 

Ojs'e is partly prepared to see India if he has passed 
through Egypt and Palestine on his way here, as I did, 
but even then he feels that the East of India is differ- 
ent from the East of Egypt and Syria. The Arabs are 
not Hindus. The former are a much finer, larger race 
in person, and are more filthy than the people here. 
The sight of hundreds of coolies on the wharves, busy 
unloading and loading the great ships, their bare 
slender legs and their brown bare arms and shoulders 
impress one that Bombay is Oriental and at the same 
time warm. The glare of the sun, even in the morn- 
ing and the winter-time, also intimates the great heat. 
As I first cast a glance from the SomerhilVs deck 
upon England's busy trafiic in Bombay, and the great, 
strong paraphernalia necessary for dock work, there 
came a sense of loneliness thinking of the great city 
and greater country all unknown to me. Once on 
shore, the tram-cars, the roadway built and carried on 
by a New York syndicate, suggested that with these 



10 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

and railways my task of g-etting over the land would 
uot be very hard after all. An admirable net-work of 
street-cars runs all through the city, and in these one 
finds all classes and races, Eui-opeans, Hindus, Moham- 
medans, Parsees, and others. Caste yields to travel. 
All these Indian cities have the old native part and 
the newer English part, the former dirty, squalid, the 
latter with wide, clean streets, ample grounds, and 
strong, fine buildings. It is so in Bombay. The 
*' Fort " or southern part of the island has most of the 
English establishments, the Malabar Hills in the west 
part having the rich Parsee residences and some En- 
glish, while the rest of the city has mostly natives. 

The native portions have their poorer and their bet- 
ter streets. Many Hindus and Mohammedans are 
rich, and for native houses have good ones well sit- 
uated in yards and gardens. It is as impossible to call 
the streets, homes, and clothing of the rich character- 
istic of the Hindu life as it is to call that characteristic 
alone where the coolie is stark naked save a limited 
breech-cloth, and who lives among squalid lanes in 
dirtiest houses of one room only for the whole family. 
It takes these extremes and all the gradations between 
them to show the life here. All the streets swarm 
with people, so numerous are they in this country. It 
was my fortune to be taken by the missionaries through 
some of these streets in the denser 25art of the city. 
Smells arising from bad drainage, from cooking native 
foods, from the native worship, from the natives 
themselves, nnd from unknown sources, crowded upon 
one's olfactory nerves. It was well if he had learned 
to be around old tanneries and bleacheries. In many 
cases the mats or blankets that may have covered the 
entrance from the street to the single room occupied 



STREET SIGHTS IN B 0MB A Y. 11 

by a family were removed for the clay, and thus 
glimpses of coolie homes were obtained without hav- 
ing to enter them. A light bamboo bedstead or two 
were sometimes to be seen, on which some rags lay, a 
copper kettle for cooking, a bit of mud fire-place in 
one corner, with no chimney for the escape of smoke, 
save into the room, an earthen floor, or one a grade 
higher made dry with a plastering of bullock-dung, not 
a chair or bench, and for dishes possibly three or four 
copper or brass ones of j^eculiar shape and many pur- 
poses. With one of the ladies in charge of the native 
Christian work I went into some of the homes of those 
reached by the beneficent ministries of the Gospel. 
More cleanly homes, better clad families, and more 
comfortable arrangement of beds, benches or chairs, 
dishes and other household utensils, were to be distin- 
guished. Christianity touches the whole life. 

On getting into an Oriental city one is impressed by 
the exceedingly varied and many-colored costumes. 
White is apt to predominate. Peoples in hot climates 
are inclined to adopt that color as a guard against the 
excessive heat. Here one sees persons clad all in 
white, from the white turban to the white pants on his 
legs, or the white cloth that by a peculiar folding cov- 
ers the loins and hips, reaching to the knees. Even 
the breech-cloth of the coolies once was white. But 
this color is not absolute. The better classes often 
wear several colors. One will have a red or green tur- 
ban, a purple or black jacket, and then white pants, 
with his feet encased in red slippers. Women go in 
blue, white, or green chuddars. Bright colors, if white 
is not used, are apt to be assumed. With a street full 
of such costumes under a bright Indian sun the 
effect is fanciful. At any time one might think every 



12 A WINTER m INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

body was out-doors, but on second thought he knows 
that the harem-kept women of the better classes are 
never seen on the street. 

Mingling with these moving masses of humanity are 
such grotesque carts and wagons that to stop and gaze 
at them is a Yankee's first impulse. Carts, carriages, 
cabs, all are strange. Now and then a tony carriage 
may roll by that was brought from England or even 
America, but nearly all are native. For eight annas, 
about sixteen cents, one ^an ride to almost any part of 
the city in a good four-wheeled cab, or " ghari," but al- 
ways with a poor, miserable horse, for the Indians do not 
know how to take care of horses. For two or four an- 
nas, if you are democratic and independent enough to 
break your Western caste, you can have a ride a mile 
or two in a bullock-cart. Only remember that if some 
European sees you he will think you are lowering your- 
self by riding in that way. But then for a Yankee 
such a ride for a trial is a fine one. I climb into one, 
cushioned, small, covered with white cotton-cloth, the 
driver perched forward on a bit of seat, as much sur- 
prised as the European sitting near by in the street-car. 
But two other Yankees, both missionaries, share the 
odium with me. Away we go. The small, white, hump- 
shouldered bullocks strangely yoked and harnessed to 
the diminutive cart, urged into a smart trot by the 
driver, are as sharp as horses in shunning other carts 
^and the thronging crowds that part one way and the 
other at the cries of our Jehu. If the bullocks do not 
go fast enough he can, from his place, easily catch one 
by the tail and give it a twist. Bullock-driving by 
voice, stick, and hand-pushing is a science. After all, 
if one rides quickly and safely and cheaply through 
a great city, why bother about the manner ? 



STREET SIGHTS IN BOMB A F. 13 

The shops to be seen in Bombay defy description as 
much as the masses of people in the streets. In the 
native quarters they are generally open entirely on the 
side toward the street, like a porch, and then in a space 
eight or twelve feet square are piled the goods, cloths, 
or food, or shoes, or chinaware, or iron, while the 
seller sits cross-legged or on his haunches ready to wait 
on you as you approach the front of his room. You 
do not enter, since the salesroom is three feet above 
the street, with no steps to go in, and there is no room 
for your great shoe-clad feet. He is always barefooted. 
The stores in the newer parts of the city are more like 
those in America. In the native shops the work or 
trade of the occupant goes on openly, instead of being 
done in the back rooms, as among us. Tailoring, cook- 
ing, shoe-making, blacksmithing, and the like, progress. 
In front of a confectioner's I saw three native women 
pounding some spicery or other in a mortar. The 
pestles were each about four feet long and two inches 
in diameter, the mortar large and deep. Standing 
around it, they threw the pestles alternately into the 
mortar, by a deft rhythmic order, so one did not bother 
the other; and further, each woman changed hands at 
every throw, now the right, now the left, the whole 
combining to make an interesting sight. 

The many temples and mosques in Bombay show the In- 
dians to be a religious race. In addition to these, images 
and emblems are set up in little recesses in the walls of the 
streets and houses, being always strewn with red ocher 
and oil. In front of one small image in a temple con- 
tiguous to the street, at which a young priest stood 
officiating, was a narrow tank into which the oil poured 
over the god ran, and this the priest, dipping out, sold 
again and again. Dirty, frowsy, hideous fakirs are 



14 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

every now and then to be met, willing to accept alms 
from the Western man as well as from their own peo- 
ple. One kind of a religious beggar had a high conical 
hat made of peacock's feathers, and to attract to alms 
had a clanking instrument made of steel springs in one 
hand, with which he kept up a rude melody as he 
droned a nasal song. A mendicant bag hung over one 
shoulder to receive the gifts of the people. Another 
had a conch-horn that he blew, which he said conveyed 
salvation to all who heard. I heard it! Once I saw a 
man who under some vow was measuring his length 
along the dust and dirt of the pavement. 

Several times I saw men going about with an instru- 
ment on their shoulder like a rude harp with one string. 
They would utter some cry and twang this single tight 
string. Our missionaries told me it was a cotton-cleaner, 
and later I saw it in operation. The use of cotton in 
quilts, pillows, coats, pants, and caps is very extensive, 
and naturally it gets both dusty and hard packed. A pile 
of this packed or freshly washed cotton will need to be 
"picked," or fluffed, which the men wath these instru- 
ments do, by snapping this string most dexterously 
through a little of it at a time. The rhythmic hum 
of this tight string makes a noise heard half a block 
away. 

I went into the Crawfurd Market, centrally located 
in Bombay, thus getting a glimpse of the multitudi- 
nous productions of India. Here were oranges, sweet, 
delicious ones; pomegranates, apples, grapes, a few 
lingering mangoes, out of season and poor; pine-ap- 
ples, pumalos, allied to the orange, but vastly larger; 
custard-apples, lemons, limes, bananas, and many other 
fruits. There were beautiful flowers; rich, creamy- 
looking native sweet-meats; of vegetables, besides many 



STREET SIGHTS IN B 0MB A Y. 15 

that I did not know, ivere cucumbers, squashes, egg- 
23lant, potatoes, sweet-potatoes, and yams as large as 
pumpkins. A part of the great market was devoted to 
birds, where could be obtained pigeons, quails, j^ar- 
oquets, bulbuls, and others. One of the most interest- 
ing kinds was the Java sparrows, hundreds of the lively 
little dark fellows, in a cage, brightly marked with 
blood-red, bronze, and other colors. 

Liquor-shops, many anid increasing, carry their curse 
more and more, in spite of Hindu and Mohammedan 
religious objections, into the homes and lives of these 
people. The blessings of Western civilization are at- 
tended by cursings. Satan ever appears among the 
sons of God. 



16 A WINTER m INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 



LETTER II. 

MY FIRST EVENING IN BOMBAY. 

Haying fallen into the hands of the missionaries, and 
telling them I wanted to learn all I could about their 
work here, they have already given me some fine views. 
First I went with A. W. Prautch to some street- 
preaching, which is peculiarly hand-to-hand work among 
the natives. As we came to the corner where the 
agreement had been to hold the. service we found that 
one of the native Methodist preachers was already 
speaking. Forty or fifty were gathered about him list- 
ening attentively to his earnest words. I noticed two 
tall, finely dressed Hindus listening, who wore on their 
foreheads the painted spot indicative of the devotee of 
some god or other in their pantheon. As the preacher 
ceased, to give way to another, the taller of the two 
Hindus spoke a few minutes, the import of whose words, 
as told me by Mr. Prautch, was that God, who made 
all things, as the preacher said, must have made sin, so 
if God was the author of sin he was not the good and 
holy God described. To this challenge the next preacher, 
a native also, under the auspices of the Anglican Church, 
responded in proper arguments as interpreted to me. 
What surprised me was the absorbed stare of those who 
listened. Two or three with a peculiar kind of crooked 
saws on their shoulders stopped a while to hear, then 
passed on. Several women also stood during the whole 
half hour, eager listeners, while numbers of the group 



MY FIB ST EVENING IN BO JIB A Y. 17 

about weve boys from ten to fourteen, whose great 
dark eyes, wide open, showed that they were drinking 
in the truth. One man, with a big bundle of wood on 
his head, stood nearly all the time among the crowd. 
I noticed especially a group of three or four young 
men, sixteen or so, naked to their waists, standing eager 
to hear, their hands clasped over each other's brown 
shoulders in attitudes like some exquisitely fashioned 
bronze group, which, indeed, they much resembled. It 
is found all through India that this street-preaching 
does much good. 

From there Mr. Prautch took me to the location of 
one of his schools, where a native teacher gathers for a 
couple of hours each day forty or more boys and girls, 
from six to ten years of age, to teach them to read in 
the native language. It was now getting dark, so I 
could but dimly see the people who thronged about us. 
Many of them were the children of the school; mothers 
also were there with babes resting on their hips, while 
a good sprinkling of men also came. The place was a 
narrow alley between low sheds covered with bamboo- 
leaves and divided into sections a dozen or fifteen feet 
long, each section making a house for a whole family. 
It was a strange cluster of homes. We had scarcely 
arrived wdien we heard a man calling out loudly, 
and soon saw a devotee coming near us with a small 
square lantern, a conch-trumpet, a begging-tray, and a 
bag into which to put the things given him. A con- 
stant coming to him by one and another, mostly women 
out of the huts, was going on, almost all bringing some 
food, rice, or flour, which, as his tray was partly filled, 
he put into the bags hanging from each shoulder. 
Then, in response to these gifts and attentions, he 
marked the foreheads of all he could reach with 
2 



IS A WINTER m INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

chalk. ]^Ir. Praiitcli knew of these fellows, but, to enter 
on a talk, asked him what he marked the people for, and 
his answer was that he conveyed a blessing with his 
chalk-mark. A long discussion followed between the 
two men, quite a crowd gathering round, so that the 
falseness of such notions uncovered by Mr. Prautch 
was listened to by fifty or a hundred eager people. It 
was a wild, weird scene, under the tropical starlight, 
some palms and other trees growing not far away with 
their outlines sharp against the sky, the long, low huts 
swarming with human beings, the listening crowd 
gathered about us, the two men in eager discussion. 
The devotee, hard pressed, blew a long blast on his 
conch, declaring that all who heard it would be saved. 
Finally, Mr. Prautch struck in and sang, the children 
whom he is having taught crowding close about him, 
joining heartily in singing the refrain, which was a sort 
of doggerel satire on this class of mendicants. The 
Hindu said that these people would do any thing for 
him, to prove which claim he said, ■' Give me a smoke 
of gongee," when a man brought him a big pipeful 
of that hateful drug, which he smoked with great ap- 
parent satisfaction. Then he called for a bowl of water, 
which was quickly reached to him. Yet this teacher 
could not read a word, acknowledging this to Mr. 
Prautch, and also publicly confessing that he begged to 
get a living. As he sounded his conch and moved 
away Mr. Prautch preached Christ to the lingering 
crowds, sang a hymn with the children about Jesus, and 
we passed on. Hearing some native music in a yard 
where Mr. Prautch was acquainted, we turned aside to 
find half a hundred people gathered about a miniature 
temple as large as a bushel-basket, in which and before 
it lire was kept burning. As some attended this fire a 



JfY FIRST E VEmNG IN B OMBA Y. 19 

man dressed as a woman danced and whirled about 
among tlio bv-standers, keeping time by cries or hand- 
clapping with the rude music made by the half dozen 
players. They were very demonstrative to Mr. Prautch 
and me, crowding about us to shake hands as we started 
to go away. From these manifestations of native re- 
ligiousness we went at half past seven to the ample 
rooms of Mr. Dyer, where a good-bye meeting was 
to be held among the English and Americans for Mr. 
Gladwin, who was about leaving for Ceylon on a mission 
in the interest of social purity. Mr. Dyer and Mr. 
Gladwin have both been doing heroic work in this 
field, and there was need of it, for the Indian govern- 
ment drew a large resource from the licenses granted to 
brothels, but the revenue has been stopped by the 
English Parliament since the agitation begun by these 
two men. Mr. Gladwin was for several years in our 
mission work; then, leaving that, worked with the 
Salvation Army, but for three years has labored with 
Mr. Dyer in this new crusade. About forty gathered 
in Mr. Dyer's rooms, a psalm was read, songs of Christ 
were sung, prayers offered, short talks made, all in a 
free and hearty spirit, being most like simple, intense 
Methodist social meetings of any thing I have seen 
since leaving London. Faith, prayers, wide hopes in 
God's providences and help were urged and well illus- 
trated. Four of our missionaries were present. As we 
went home through the fragrance of tropical flowers 
and under the bright moon of an India sky I deemed 
the Anglo-Saxon race great and strong, partly good, 
noble, and grand, and partly hard, selfish, and brutal. 



20 A WINTER IN INDIA AND 2IALA YSIA. 



LETTER III. 

METHODISM IN BOMBAY. 

The city is occupied by quite a net-work of stations. 
There are three English-speaking churches belonging 
to us founded by Bishop William Taylor, a Seaman's 
Rest, two stations of native work, and a brisk station 
of Woman's Foreign Missionary Society work. Yet in 
the hundreds of thousands here there are room and call 
for more work and workers. By location and common 
acquiescence the Grant Road Church is the center of 
our missions in this city. It was one of the Taylor 
foundation. Of this Rev. H. C. Stuntz is pastor, hav- 
ing come to India two years ago, and to this church 
last Conference. He and his family, consisting of a 
wife and two-year-old boy, are well and happy in their 
work. The church building is capable of seating four 
hundred and fifty hearers, was erected in 1878 by the 
people of Bombay, and is valued at 35,000 rupees. Last 
year a parsonage was erected in the rear of the church at 
a cost of 8,000 rupees, not all paid yet, but borne by 
the local board. It is commodious and pleasant. There 
is a membership of sixty-five English-speaking people, 
with an average attendance of one hundred and fifty, a 
Sunday-school of seventy-five, and an English-speaking 
mission at Parel, a railroad suburb five miles out, where 
they gather every Tuesday evening. In this church 
are the usual social meetings of a home Methodist 
church. The ringing personal testimonies to present and 



METHODISM IN BO MB A Y. 21 

full salvation heard here sounded good. Twenty have 
been converted since Conference. Besides their own sup- 
port the three churches aid the local native work, 
contribute between one and two hundred rupees to our 
Missionary Society, and, including all missionary contri- 
butions, give jij>6r capita about three dollars a member. 
That is better than some New England churches do. 

The Fort Church was the first of the English-sj^eak- 
ing churches organized under Bisliop William Taylor, 
and so is sometimes called the cradle of Bombay Meth- 
odism. It has a membership of sixty, in charge of 
Rev. E. F. Frease, who, with his wife and child, came 
to India last winter. They have worshiped in halls as 
they could get opportunities, but this year, having de- 
cided to build, have leased ground of the Port Trust 
Company for fifty years, and have the foundations of 
their church, to the bottom of the lower window, now 
laid, built out of trap-rock furnished from the quarries 
close to the city. It is nicely planned, will seat three 
hundred and fifty people, with an ample parsonage 
above the church, and is located in an admirable part 
of the city, on the narrow neck of the island south- 
ward. It will cost 112,000, of which- sum the ]\[ission- 
ary Society will pay |o,000, the remainder to be raised 
here. They have a membership of seventy, with an 
average attendance of one hundred and fifty, and a 
Sunday-school of sixty-five. Mr. Frease does street- 
preaching by an interpreter; the prayer and class-meet- 
ings are well attended, and forty conversions have 
taken place since Conference. With a church of their 
own this vigorous society will prosper better than ever, 
and can then much better jDush the native work begun 
by Rev. W. E. Robbins, now carried on by Miss 
Thompson and others. 



22 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

Tlie Mazagon Church is located in the soutli-eastern 
part of the city. It was organized sixteen years ago, 
among the English-spealcing population, after William 
Taylor's campaign. It was expected that the popula- 
tion would fill in thickly close about it, but the cotton- 
mills, soon after erected, being placed in another part 
of the city, these expectations were not realized; so 
that it is left in rather a sparsely settled region. Still, 
there is contiguous to this location a large section of 
the city in which no missionary work is done save by 
this church. A debt hung over tlie pretty church build- 
ing for some years, which was finally paid by the Mis- 
sionary Society to make it a chapel for native work. It 
will seat about one hundred and fifty. Contiguous to 
it the society has built a fine parsonage, recently fin- 
ished, and into it the pastor, Rev. "W. E. Bobbins, 
has moved. The two buildings make a fine set of 
23roperty. As members of the church there are only 
about half a dozen English-speaking people now con- 
nected with it, and the same number of natives. The 
united attendants of both classes number about seventy. 
There are three day-schools in the vernacular, having 
together about sQventy-five scholars, conducted by the 
church, and all these are organized, as Sunday-schools. 
One is at the church, the others away from it. There 
is also another Sunday-school three miles from the 
church, under its direction, in which there is a large at- 
tendance; so that, all told, the church has about one 
hundred and fifty scholars under instruction on Sunday. 
Street-preaching is regularly done by native helpers in 
the vernacular, besides wdiich they sell books, tracts, and 
gospels. A Bible woman is also kej)t at work doing 
the particular work that this class alone can accomplish. 
About once a month Brother Robbins goes out of the 



METHODISM IN BOMB A Y, 23 

city to a point twenty miles away to preach to a fine 
gatliering. 

The native work is in charge of Rev. W". W. Bruere 
and wife, with their head-quarters in the rented school- 
building near the Grant Road Churcli, which latter 
they use for most of their services. They have a mem- 
bership, including Prautch's ingatherings, of one hun- 
dred, counting probationers. They have quite a regular 
audience of about one hundred, four Sunday-schools — 
one in the church and three outside — with over three 
hundred scholars. They keep up one day-school of 
sixty boys, with teachers paid by our Missionary So- 
ciety, besides a boarding-school in which they have 
thirty boarders with ten day-scholars. They keep up 
street-preaching in the vernacular at two places, besides 
much work done in the homes. I visited several of the 
Christian homes of these people and found little in 
them that would suit an American housekeeper. This 
work is very encouraging. Miss Power, a native, does 
much zenana work. The head teacher in the native 
school is a promising man from a low caste educated 
by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and 
is so eager to work for Christ that he has begged the 
privilege of Brother Bruere to hold meetings for the 
natives every night in the school-room ; so from six to 
eight he is there, talking, selling tracts and gospels, 
and is thus doing vast good. 

To gain a just knowledge of Mr. Prautch's work one 
needs to know something of the worker. He is only 
twenty-three years old, having been found in Chicago 
by Dennis Osborne five years ago, a poor boy of German 
parents, converted in D. L. Moody's church in that city, 
surrounded during his years till that time by very dis- 
advantageous conditions, so that he began work for the 



24 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

Lord but poorly prepared. He had hopes of getting 
an education by coming out to India, but soon found 
the Methodist schools here not well adapted to his 
wants. He began studying by himself, came here, and 
commenced to work for the Lord. He has now mas- 
tered two of the native dialects, so he can do street- 
preaching, and in the midst of a native locality of sixty 
thousand people, one of the poorest, worst parts of the 
city, is doing valuable, heroic work. He is as yet un- 
married, but I may not tell what a few months are re- 
puted to have in store for him. He rents a native house 
and lives right among the people much like the people. 
If his health is not injured by such a life many things 
might be said in its favor. He considers his most im- 
portant work to be the enormous masses of Christian 
literature he sells to the natives. From February to 
September this year he and his native helpers sold 60 
New Testaments, 5,645 gospels, and 20,130 tracts. 
They go along the streets, one on each side, crying 
their books and tracts, which the j)eople often buy w^ith 
the utmost avidity. Sometimes a woman will send 
enough money to buy several gospels and tracts, leaving 
him to send what ones he will. His three most promi- 
nent tracts sold are " The Great Physician," " The True 
Saviour," " The Kesurrection." During eight months 
past he has printed at his own expense, and distributed, 
21,000 tracts, and the day I was with him had com- 
pleted a contract for the printing of 12,000 more. He 
sells these at such a price that he makes a little on their 
cost, the margin being used, as also that above his rent 
and cheap living from the Mission Rooms, in pushing 
his work among the natives. He has under his direc- 
tion five schools among the boys and girls, with three 
teachers, who are paid by the Missionary Society. In 



METHODISM m BOMBAY. 25 

these schools are taught the primary things, as reading, 
arithmetic, writing, geography — then one hour every 
day the Bible, Catechism, and singing. In these 
schools are about one hundred and fifty scholars. 
There are carried on six Sunday-schools, having two 
hundred and seventy scholars. He keeps two Bible 
women at work, who visit hospital wards for women, pri- 
vate families, and do what they have opportunities for 
doing. In the liomes they sing hymns, read the Bible, 
and talk of its truths to the native women as they will 
listen. By this means from twenty to fifty women are 
reached every day. 

Mr. Prautch has had eight native preachers at work 
during the year, keeping up street-preaching regularly 
at several spots ; has five places for regular preaching 
in rooms, for three of which he pays rent, two places 
lately having been given up because of the inability of 
himself and assistants to bear the weight of their mul- 
tiplied duties. An organization consisting of seventeen 
members is kept up as a sort of adjunct of the native 
church on Grant Road, twelve having been baptized 
within a year. He has two or three Europeans whose 
living he pays for, and who live and labor with him. 
One of these, with a few ruj)ees only in his pocket, re- 
cently went across the harbor, where is a place, ten by 
fifteen miles, in which live one hundred and thirty thou- 
sand people with ho missionary work done among them. 
He has got a home, has begun preaching and teaching, 
and within two weeks sends word for one of the or- 
dained ministers to come over and baptize two who have 
professed Christ. Mr. Prautch is responsible for this 
man's living and the pay of his native helper. One of 
our pastors. Rev. H. C. Stuntz, will go and baptize these 
men at once. 



26 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

The Seaman's Rest was begun only three years ago 
by Dr. J. S. Stone, then pastor of. Grant Road Church, 
who first furnished tea to some of the neglected sailors 
in port; the work so enlarged that a call was made for 
more space, a small room was rented at forty rupees a 
month, a revival broke out, and then they had to go to 
a still larger hall costing one hundred and ten rupees a 
month. Up to this time the expenses had all been paid 
by private subscriptions. A. W. Prautch, now in 
native work, was put in charge of it, and during the 
first full year nearly three hundred sailors were con- 
verted. The city government, seeing the good done by 
this mission in restoring and keeping order along the 
extended quays, before unsafe to orderly people from 
rowdyism and drunkenness, granted two hundred rupees 
a month to it as long as it should be sustained. At 
once an American colored man oifered to build a commo- 
dious house for this amount, and receive his pay for it 
in monthly installments ; so they have just completed on 
the main street at Prince's Dock a house worth twenty 
thousand rupees, with chapel, refreshment-room, read- 
ing-room, home for the superintendent and assistants, 
besides several rooms to rent. The present superin- 
tendent is Rev. B. Mitchell, a Scotchman, who, four 
years ago, penniless and almost in despair, was found 
on the streets of Bombay by Rev. J. S. Stone, and led 
to Christ. During the present year two hundred and 
eighty have been converted or reclaimed here, including 
four captains of ships, besides other officers. Meetings 
are held every night but Wednesdays and Saturdays. 
On Thursday nights is free tea, and after that preach- 
ing, at which there are often one hundred and fifty 
23resent. It is supported by private subscriptions; these 
are solicited from every ship that comes in as well as 



METHODISM IN BOMB A Y. 27 

from individuals in the city. There is a department 
for work among native sailors, but not yet made effect- 
ive. The sailors reached here and helped go all over 
the world, like those from the East Boston Bethel 
under Dr. L. B. Bates. 

On going to the department of the Woman's Foreign 
Missionary Society work of Bombay Methodism I 
found the ladies nicely located in an airy, commodious, 
garden-embowered home. But these pleasant surround- 
ings must be given up this year, not behig owned, but 
only rented, and circumstances compelling a change. 
As yet they have not found any new place to suit them, 
either to rent or buy, for they will do the latter as soon 
as they can, their choice being to buy and build. Real 
estate is very high in this city. The Woman's Foreign 
Missionary Society in America has appropriated the 
money to buy. The work done here by the women can 
be roughly divided into two classes, zenana and school. 
In the zenana work they get chances among all kinds of 
people, Hindus, Mohammedans, Parsees, Jews, Arabs, 
Beni-Israelites, and others. The Beni-Israelites are Jews 
who have partly forsaken the traditions of their race 
and become mixed in blood and religion with other races. 
The women usually spend an hour in each home teach- 
ing the native women during a part of it to sew, cut 
garments, read, do fancy work, and the like ; in short, 
give them something to do ; then the other half hour im- 
press gospel teaching upon them. In this work they 
now enter about one hundred and fifty homes, so planning 
it as to visit each one every week. Nearly or quite tw^o 
hundred women are regularly reached. Miss De Line, 
in charge of the zenana work here, has five English- 
speaking helpers, all born in India, besides Miss Thomp- 
son, from America. Just now Miss Abrams, in charge 



28 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

of the school, is off on sick leave, and Miss Thompson, 
who is sister of Mrs. Frease, is successfully doing the 
work of teacher. These noble women have a wide 
variety of experiences, passing from the region of utter 
rejection of their approaches and abuse to the most 
hearty and eager acceptances of their blessings and 
help. In their four years of work they have seen 
quite a number of conversions, some of which are openly 
confessed; others are obliged from the conditions of their 
homes and the results threatened to live their Christian 
faith in secret. Three sisters in one home secretly live 
their faith in Christ, praying, reading the Bible they 
keep hidden from their people, and are afraid to ask for 
baptism, which is here the separating mark and act in 
their relation to their heathen relatives. A mother 
with six children, converted to Christ, does not want 
publicly to be known as a Christian, for then her hus- 
band would turn her from her home, from himself and 
all her children. If thus turned away she would have 
no home but in the mission. If a man is baptized he 
can stay at the head of his home though all the rest 
may remain heathens. In most instances the men are 
glad to have the women come to their houses with the 
mission they bring of elevating the tone of their homes 
and wives, hoping the latter will get the benefits and 
amenities of Western civilization without accepting the 
new religion. The women of the mission think much 
good is being done. " The eyes of India are turning 
to Christ," says Miss De Line. One native Bible 
woman, sixty years old, gray, keen, shriveled, but a 
vast force from her powerful personality, is employed 
and paid for her work by the Woman's Foreign Mis- 
sionary Society. 

In the schools, of which there are four — three city 



METHODISM IN BOMB A Y. 29 

schools away from the head-quarters and one there — 
they have over seventy scholars. In the outside schools 
the primary branches are taught, with Bible instruction 
gradually taken in; in the school at head-quarters the 
purpose is, as it is a boarding-school, to run it up to the 
matriculation grade, much like a high-school in America. 
In this was a bright group of girls from six to sixteen 
years of age. The teachers of this school are paid by 
the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, save one Bible 
woman, who is paid by some American pegple out of 
private funds. These schools among girls and boys are 
raising up cultured, well-prepared native workers for 
■Methodism, whose distinctive Methodistic preparation 
for work will be of great worth to South India as 
the years go by. A crying need all through the South 
India field is for reliable, properly instructed native 
workers, both men and women. 



80 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 



LETTER IV. 

A THOUSAND MILES' RUN THROUGH INDIA. 

The run began at Bombay 7 P. M. Monday, No- 
vember 26, and ended five days later at Moradabad. 
The night ride was not good for seeing the country, so 
that the first two hundred miles must be taken on 
trust, as I took it, though I could see that we crossed 
wide rivers, a few inlets from, the sea, and a low level 
reach of country. After a while enough room was at- 
tained in the car to stretch out on the seat for a good 
rest and cover myself in the blankets every one must 
carry in India for sleeping. Then in what seemed but a 
short time the fact suddenly came to me that it was 
past sunrise, that the English engineer on the other 
side of the compartment was smoking his morning pipe, 
a,nd that I needed to bestir myself. This I did by 
looking out of a window to see a tree not a hundred 
feet from the railway full of monkeys quietly looking 
at us as we thundered by them. They were so gray 
as to appear almost white in the bright sunlight, some 
as large as a big dog, others half that size. All the day 
groups of similar ones could be seen here and there, 
sometimes in trees, then on the banks of the railway 
or in the fields of grain, with the natives letting them 
get their fill, for these East Indians think monkeys 
sacred creatures, worshiping them sometimes, so that 
they are well treated in their roguish pilfering. They 
looked odd, indeed, with their long tails high over their 



A THOUSAND MILES' RUN THROUGH INDIA. SI 

backs. The natives were bathing as a sacred act in the 
rivers as we crossed them early in the morning. They 
seem to think that cleanliness is not only next to god- 
liness, but is a part of it. The foliage, animals, birds — 
every thing — seemed strange to me. The rice fields, 
from which the crop had not long been harvested, were 
sown to wheat for the second crop daring the year, 
and were being irrigated. Most of it was done with 
water drawn up from wells. Across a couple of up- 
right timbers a roller would be placed on which was a 
wheel; over the wheel ran a strong rope, on the lower 
end of Avhicli a bullock-skin was hanging, so shaped 
and tied as to form a great bucket. This being dipped 
in the water at the bottom of a large well a yoke of 
bullocks hitched to the rope would speedily draw it up, 
when it would be caught by a man and emptied where 
it could run off into a prepared sluice to the fields of 
grain. One well seemed capable of affording water for 
three or five acres. The winter crops, there being no 
rains during this season, can be raised only by irrigation. 
All the way this method of irrigation was going on. 

The trees were familiar-looking, yet wholly iinlike 
those in America. The palm grew rarer and shorter 
the farther north we went, the cocoanut giving way to 
the date-palm. The mango-tree, the fruit of which, 
now out of season, to my great regret, and the boast of 
all dwellers in India, looks much like a chestnut-tree, the 
leaves being a little more slender. The " momra " 
tree, looking not unlike a second growth white oak, 
yields a fruit out of which a sharp, intoxicating liquor 
is made, said to be something like rum, on which the 
people get drunk; so the government has put a tax on 
it "for revenue only." Acacia or locust-trees of dif- 
ferent species abounded, one of them, the " babul," 



82 A WIXTER IN INDIA AND MALA TSIA. 

now richly clad with brig-ht yellow blossoms, have per- 
sisted from Bombay to Moradabad. Not only are they 
in bloom, but many other kinds of trees are rich in 
scarlet or yellow or red blossoms. While ground in New 
England is frozen hard, and possibl}^ snow-covered, In- 
dia can furnish along the roads and fields a hundred 
beautiful blossoms, roses, asters, oleanders, morning- 
glories, creepers, and others. The yards of the rail- 
way stations were many times most profusely planted 
to flowers. Such masses of them kept driving out of 
my mind that it was Thanksgiving season, when, in the 
Northern States, the thermometer usually indicates from 
five to fifteen degrees below zero. As we came north- 
ward there was some change in the trees. To my re- 
gret, banyan nearly ceased, as I was w^anting to look 
at it with more leisure than I could have on a pass- 
ing train, I noticed one peculiarity of this and some 
other kinds — that the main body, instead of being solid, 
would be composed sometimes of many sections grow- 
ing tightly together, but yet distinct. The trees do 
not cover the country, as in New England, but are 
loosely scattered over the fields, as in some old pastures 
with us, seeming, a mile or two away, however, to 
form complete forests. 

From the time I awoke, two hundred miles out of 
Bombay, the first morning, all the way to Moradabad 
I was surprised at the vastness of bird life. I kept my 
eyes now and then steadily glancing ahead toward the 
engine to see if there was any moment when no birds 
were to be seen fleeing from the train, and sometimes 
a mile would be passed without there being any mo- 
ment when T could not see them. And such birds ! — 
from the tiniest kind of sparrows all the way up to vult- 
ures, and adjutants which stood four feet high. These 



A THOUSAND MILES' RUN THROUGH INDIA. 33 

last would stand, a conspicuous sight, on some wheat- 
field or other, their light gray bodies, white tail and 
neck giving the impression of a totally white bird. 
Their head is a brilliant scarlet. Peacocks abound, 
half domesticated, like the robins in America; and, be- 
ing considered sacred, the natives make a great row if 
Europeans kill them or monkeys. The natives never kill 
any of the birds or animals, so their tameness is a constant 
astonishment to Western people. Hawks, pigeons, 
fly-catchers, and other birds would sit on the railway 
fence-posts and telegraph wires as the train roared 
along. Birds in brilliant plumage, such as we never 
see in northern United States, abounded. Paroquets, 
fly-catchers, hoopoes, and others bore colors from dull 
gray all along through brown, black, white, blue, red, 
slate, green, orange, with endless variations in all of 
these colors. O, how I wanted leisure and opportunity 
carefully and fully to study this feathered wealth ! 

If bird life abounded the glimpses obtained of an- 
imal life showed that this also was rich, if not so read- 
ily seen as the other. The monkeys, with their half- 
domesticated instincts, were comical and impudent. A 
jackal or two sneaking away at early morning from the 
noise of the train, as well as the ground freshly dug up 
by them overnight in search of moles and other earth-hid- 
den food, suggested how many might be seen and heard 
under other conditions. Pretty squirrels, striped not un- 
like the American chipmunk, but with more bushy tail, 
sought food close by human habitation undisturbed by 
the Indian boy. They said I should see deer and ante- 
lope; and it was true, for the second morning a single 
one of the latter bounded gracefully away over the 
plains, while only ten miles out of Delhi a herd of 
twenty-five deer was seen grazing on the green, succu- 
3 



84 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

lent wheat three or four inches tall. What a sight for 
one with hunter instincts \ Later still one ran beside 
the train half a mile pursued by a dog. Then those ac- 
quainted with the country told of hares and other small 
animals in abundance. As we came through the Ara- 
valli Mountains the afternoon of the first day the En- 
glish engineer told of bears, tigers, cheetahs, panthers, 
deer, antelope, and smaller game living in them. An 
English officer last year in a week there killed three 
tigers, three bears, and one panther, besides other 
game. In the same mountains are the Bhils — a race 
of wild men, they call them; rude, unsubdued fellows, 
whom neither the native rajah nor the English have yet 
been able to bring under control. They go nearly naked, 
are warlike, living by the chase and robbery, even at- 
tacking the cars in their love of plunder. I was glad 
we went through the mountains in the day-time. 

The people whom I have seen during this run have 
presented a great variety of conditions, from the well- 
dressed, inquisitive Parsee to the naked coolie, as poor 
and thin as a man could be and work. The route has 
been through several native States which England lets 
have their own way, customs, and laws, if they regu- 
larly pay the demanded tribute. Many of the people 
went armed with some old sword or dagger, or even 
with bow and arrows, for England discourages the 
keeping of fire-arms. It had a comical look to see some 
half -naked native going about wnth a long sword 
tucked under his arm or slung to a strap hanging over 
his shoulder, while the primitive bow and arrows did 
not look like very formidable weapons. If they did not 
have any more deadly weapons they almost invariably 
carried a long cane like a light cliib. Some fortifica- 
tions, as antiquated as their weapons, crowned a hill-top 



A THOUSAND MILES' RUN THROUGH INDIA. S5 

here and there. These natives in Bombay, and for the 
first day seen out on my trip, wore only cotton goods, 
but the second day I saw some of the rich ones with 
woolen garments. Even then, when a thick quilt 
and my overcoat had failed to keep me warm in the cars 
through the night, early the next morning, before the 
sun was up, many of them were lounging about the sta- 
tion bare-legged and bare-armed. 

O, the misery and squalor of India's millions ! 
Women toiling in the fields or at hard labor of other 
kinds, carrying great loads on their heads at building 
or harvesting or other works, half -naked; men still less 
clad, slim, poor, and hard-worked, beaten, kicked — who 
can wonder at their degradation till they worship a 
thousand things, from a stone set up to peacocks, mon- 
keys, cows, and the sun in the heavens above us ? Their 
methods of work, from splitting wood with an instru- 
ment almost as blunt as a sledge-hammer to their 
wooden plows, were of the crudest kind. Grain was 
threshed with a crooked stick by people sitting on the 
ground, and winnowed by the wind. Huts of mud or 
of leaves and branches, with a fragile thatching, were 
the only home of some of these people. Others had 
comfortable-looking houses of brick or stone. But how 
like the taste of more highly civilized people is theirs ! 
I counted rings on three fingers of a woman, besides 
bracelets of massive silver two thirds to the elbow. 
And she, too, seemed proud of her finery. 

In much of this country there has been long drought, so 
the first crops this year were a failure, the rivers have run 
dry, the pastures are almost worthless, and there is much 
suffering, actual and threatening. The natives dig up the 
roots and the few blades of grass attached to them, 
carrying great bundles for their goats and cattle. I 



36 A WINTER JN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

saw two breeds of domesticated cattle — the bullock, 
mostly white, small, hump-shouldered, big-eared, and 
then the mouse-colored buffalo, almost hairless, larger,, 
hideous-looking about his crooked lop-horns and pro- 
jecting muzzles. I saw no sheep, but many goats. The 
country seems almost a level plain, with ranges of hills 
or mountains here and there rising abruptly from this 
dead flatness. Most of the country is highly cultivated, 
but long tracts through the native States lie untilled, 
while other stretches seem but poorly adapted to culti- 
vation, having vast quantities of pampa-grass in huge 
tussocks, the stalks standing from eight to tAvelve feet 
high, now ripe and dry. There was more untilled land 
than I expected. It is certain that this country, so 
thickly settled, could be made to sustain many more 
peoj^le if all of it were cultivated. The rock noticed 
was a little coarse granite, much trap, and more of 
finely laminated sandstone, from the last thousands and 
thousands of fence-posts being split and used beside 
the railway. Another kind of fence was cactus-hedges 
and those grown out of the century-plant. The mud 
huts of the villagers had no garden or yard of flowers, 
all about them being dirty, dusty, and cheerless. These 
people show the abjectest fear of the British, and to 
most of them every white man is of that dominant 
race. They cringe, step out of the way, bow low, and 
studiously deprecate his wrath. In Delhi I had more 
salutes from policemen and native soldiers in one day 
than I had received since 1861-65. England treats the 
people with a disdain that to Americans seems far too 
harsh even for conquerors of so vast a people as this. 
My thousand miles were really ten hundred and forty. 
My exact fare for that distance, intermediate class, was 
14.70 — cheaper riding than one gets in the United States, 



IN A ND ABO UT DELHI 37 



LETTER y. 

IN AND ABOUT DELHI. 

A CONTINUOUS run of forty-six hours from Bombay 
has landed me in Delhi. The memories of this renowned 
city have crowded upon me with peculiar force ever 
since the cars bringing me were headed this way. To 
me it has always seemed as though Delhi must be more 
truly an Indian city than any other of the great ones, 
for Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta are on the sea-board, 
and thus must have become much internationalized. To 
see green trees, bright flowers, fresh-growing wheat, 
luxuriant gardens and j^arks in late autumn is very odd, 
but what we really must have expected. The night air 
is perceptibly cooler than at Bombay, so that in the 
native hotel J need all the blankets I secured there. 
My first experience in a native hotel has been real 
pleasant, since they understand and speak some Eilglish, 
and I can make my wants known very well. But to 
furnish one's own bedding when he goes to a hotel is 
amoug the curious experiences of a raw traveler. A 
bedstead, mattress, and one sheet, with a low bolster, 
made up the part furnished by the hotel, the whole be- 
ing inclosed in a netting to keep out mosquitoes. Think 
of these pests troubling one after Thanksgiving ! 

A guide who could speak tolerable English was en- 
gaged to meet me at seven o'clock at the hotel. A " tum- 
tum," or two-wheeled carriage, was to be there at the 
same hour to take me to the Khutab Minar, some ten 



38 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

or a dozen miles out of the city. The tum-tum was on 
hand, but not my guide, so I went off without him, but 
in the hope that I should meet him on the street near 
the hotel, to capture whom a clerk went a long distance 
with me, but in vain. Yet I found the driver a sharp 
fellow and able to show me around ver^^ well. Along 
we went through the city already stirring, since the 
Eastern business man is at his shop early. A continu- 
ous stream of people met us, bringing cheap country 
products to the city for the early market; donkeys and 
bullocks, buffaloes and women, laden with bundles of 
fagots, dried grass, or dried cow-dung for fuel, a few 
vegetables for market, masses of reeds for mats, and 
other things. The road was a good one, such as the 
British make here, of finely pulverized stone that be- 
comes as hard as a concrete floor. Its sides were lined 
with trees, now in the richest foliage, acacias, tamarisks, 
mangoes, and many of which I have not yet learned 
the name. Birds by the hundreds, of brilliant plumage 
and odd shapes and habits, were flying hither and 
thither. I knew the hoopoes, fly-catchers, doves, and 
some others. 

What interested me more than all else was the con- 
tinuous succession of ruins every- where along this road, 
. something I had heard of but had not fully compre- 
hended. Old buildings, massive walls, towers, mosque- 
domes, arches, and chimneys extend everyway as far as one 
can see from the road, a very wilderness waste of crum- 
bling brick and decaying sandstone. Ancient Delhi 
must have extended vastly farther than the present one. 

The Khutab Minar was in sight miles of the way, now 
seen by glimpses through the tree-tops, now hidden, 
then coming out in fine relief against the brilliant sky. 
About its base were many ruins, but among them a few 



IN AND ABOUT DELHI. 39 

huts for villagers, and two or three good buildings for 
British officers, who are here to keep these noble 
monuments and ruins intact and to collect taxes in the 
local district. The Minar is certainly the finest tower I 
have ever seen, not one built by mcdiseval or modern 
purpose equaling it in grace and beauty of finish. It is 
all the more impressive as it stands among so many 
ruins, themselves noble relics of an age of great deeds 
and high civilization. It rises to the height of two 
hundred and fifty-one feet, slender, of exquisite sym- 
metry, made of richly tinted red sandstone that abounds 
in a neighboring province and which was brought here 
for this and other buildings about Delhi — brought all 
that distance by the cumbersome, slow methods before 
railways. I think the base is not over forty feet wide, 
with a gradual taper that is most pleasing to the eye. 
It is not all of red sandstone, but here and there toward 
the top are layers of white marble. Four or five balus- 
trades break the column-like surface with pleasing 
effect, and, as one ascends, afford grateful resting-places 
for a breathing spell and sight-seeing, for inside this 
marvelous tower is a spiral passage-way leading, by 
over three hundred steps, to the top. Up this I climbed, 
a guide accompanying me furnished by the British 
authorities — a native speaking good English — who 
pointed out the sights for me. Beyond us, as well as 
along the way we had come, the plain was almost a con- 
tinuous stretch of ruins, attesting the vast populousness 
at some former time of this rich Jumna valley. A few 
squalid villages here and there, some patches of culti- 
vated soil, were like spots of life among death and deso- 
lation. A dozen miles away I could see the blue 
Jumna, hardly less sacred than the Ganges, uniting 
with that river far toward the ocean. Across the plain. 



40 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

a hundred miles or more, could be seen mighty masses 
of clouds under which I knew the Himalaya Mountains 
were lying, and with the aid of my field-glass could 
catch dubious glimpses of their gray shoulders through 
the rifts and uplifts, thus obtaining my first sight of 
that gigantic mountain range. I shall soon be among 
them if fortune favors. 

Near the base of the Khutab stands the foundation of 
another tower, an exact copy of this one, built forty 
or fifty feet high, when it seems to have been aban- 
doned and now is slowly crumbling into ruins. It is 
suggested that this problematical Khutab and its twin, 
started and then not finished, were the two minars of a 
gigantic mosque, standing at the comers, in the relation 
to it as is now seen in some Indian mosques on a smaller 
scale. 

Not far from the base of the Khutab stands the 
famous " Iron Pillar/* a huge shaft of solid iron, twenty- 
four feet above the ground, with a diameter at the sur- 
face of the earth of sixteen inches and tapering slightly 
above. They have dug down twenty-six feet below 
the surface without finding the foundation on which this 
pillar rests, so that it is certainly fifty feet long, and 
probably much more, as it was not loosened by this ex- 
cavation. Its weight, as it is a solid shaft, is more 
than seventeen tons. It is not rusted, suggesting to 
some minds other metals than iron in the composition. 
Assays by British officials have proven it to be wrought 
iron, as could be plainly seen by its indented surface. 
On its sides are inscriptions in Sanskrit, by which it is 
learned that these at least were made by Rajah Dhava, 
a worshiper of Vishnu. Its base is said to rest upon the 
head of the serpent king Vasuki. The origin of this larg- 
est piece of forged iron in the world, its object, its age, 



IN AND ABOUT DELHI. 41 

are all lost in obscurity. Guesses are made with some 
show of reason that it is three thousand two hundred 
years old, carrying it back to fourteen hundred years 
B. C. It was probably an object of worship among 
the early Aryan races, representing some gross notions 
that are yet prevalent in the native worship. 

On our way back from Delhi the driver took me off 
the main road to the tomb of Hamousi, one of the 
noble monuments of Saracenic art. It is surrounded 
by a high wall and a Avide court, stands on a platform 
twenty feet high and three hundred feet square. The 
magnificent dome is of white marble, while the building 
and pavement of the wide platform are of red sand- 
stone. In the wing of the great building are the rest- 
ing-places of his wives and other prominent people, while 
his own is under the airy dome. It is all, the towers, 
platform, dome, graceful fretwork cut from stone, inlay- 
ing, and peculiar style, a very imposing structure. 
Further on w^ere immense forts fast falling into decay; 
one, the red sandstone walls of which are yet sixty to a 
hundred feet high, was a mile around. Those old Mo- 
hammedan conquerors were giants in their w^ay. 

It had been a good forenoon of seeing, and after a 
one o'clock "tiffin," I went again in the tum-tum, 
this time with the little old guide who missed me in 
the morning, to see the points of interest connected 
with the Sepoy rebellion and the retaking of Delhi. 
We drove through the wall at the Cashmere Gate 
to find it still retaining the marks of the sharp can- 
nonade to w^hich the British subjected it and the ad- 
jacent walls. Great cannon-ball holes were knocked 
in the soft brick-work during those dreadful days till in 
some places it crumbled down. Across the fields, now 
fine gardens and parks around the homes of the British 



42 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA TSIA. 

officials, we went to the location of the batteries situated 
from three to eight hundred yards from the walls, 
where the big guns stood which terrified more than 
they hurt the natives in the city. Then, after days of 
cannonading, came the spirited assault, the blowing 
down of the Cashmere Gate with powder, the scaling 
of the walls and occupancy of this corner of tlic city 
when the weak native prince and his numerous army 
fled from the other side of it. My guide said he was 
there at that time, a hoy of fifteen, and remained in the 
city with multitudes who were glad to welcome the 
conqueror. 

Two or three miles away is the " Ridge," a rocky 
rise of ground half a mile long by a quarter wide, 
where the British residents lived after Delhi was capt- 
ured by the natives in that dreadful mutiny, and de- 
fended themselves with hastily constructed intrench- 
ments, till an army could come from the north to their 
rescue and to the recapture of the city. A noble monu- 
ment in commemoration of these events stands on the 
crest, recounting the deeds of those who fell and those 
who lived. Not the least interesting was the recorded 
fact that some of the native regiments were of the 
faithful ones — the brave Sikhs and Goorkhas, not Aryan 
Hindus, nor Semitic Mohammedans, but tribes of the 
aboriginal Turanians, who alone of the Indians were for 
some time after the mutiny allowed in the British mili- 
tary service. On the same hill stands a granite column 
about fifty feet high, round, and five feet in diameter, 
with inscriptions on it, first set np by Asoka, a Hindu 
prince, a distance from here, in the third century 
before Christ. It was brought to Delhi about A. D. 
1300, and by a magazine explosion thrown down and 
broken in 1793, then set up and repaired by the British 



IN AND ABO UT DELHI. 43 

at some recent date. It is a curious kind of Cleopa- 
tra's Needle. Odd that those old peoples sought im- 
mortality that way. 

From there we drove through the city to the "Fort," 
which now is occupied by a strong garrison of English 
troops. This is a questionable point in British occupa- 
tion, so that in the city and in easy reach of it there 
are strong garrisons. The fort was built by the Mogul 
conquerors of the Punjab, and is, like so many of them 
in India, under the old regime, a royal establishment 
as well as a place of defense. Here are palaces, halls 
of public and private audience, the queen's palace, the 
king's bath-house, the jDcarl mosque, and other build- 
ings, all of the most dazzling white marble. The in- 
laying of precious stones is the first I have seen, and 
such parts as are intact are beautiful beyond expression. 
These precious pieces, however, were mostly dug out 
during the anarchy of previous years, by some rapa- 
cious vandals, and where they are gone the English gov- 
ernment has had them replaced by colored cements, so 
that their form is preserved. Figures, flowers, birds, 
are of exquisite symmetry, while over one archway in 
the hall of j^i'ivate audience is the renowned sentiment 
in Arabic: "If there is a paradise on earth it is here, 
it is here." The pearl mosque, of Avhite marble, is a 
pearl indeed, the perfection of Saracenic art, and I can- 
not see how one could enter its spotlessly white cor- 
ridors and prayer-room and not be devout. Shah Jehan 
worshiped here, turning his face westward to have it 
toward Mecca. 

Not far away is .the Juma Musjid, said to be the 
largest mosque in the world. It is of brick and the 
fine red sandstone of this region, and is truly an im- 
posing edifice. Like so many buildings I have seen 



44 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA TSIA. 

liere, it has first a broad platform, then rising above 
that the editice proper. This is not one buihling but 
several, arranged around a central paved court, which 
has an immense well in the center. On the west side 
is the large prayer mosque, which one enters along cor- 
ridors of fine columns, to find only bare marble flagging 
in black and white squares, each black square marking 
a place for one of the faithful to kneel in prayer. 
There was not a chair or bit of furniture, save a high 
desk for the reading of the Koran, almost as small as a 
step-ladder. Here was more than Puritan simplicity — 
but among the followers of a false prophet! On an- 
other side of the court were low rooms for various 
purposes. In one of them an old priest took me 
to a cell in which Avere relics — real ones, to be sure 
— of Mohammed. First was a section of the Koran 
written by a grandson of the jDrophet on j)arch- 
ment in Arabia; a bit of it still older; then a whole 
one written on j^aper, several hundred years before 
paj^er was invented; one of the prophet's slippers kept 
safely in a glass case; a hair from his head, stuck with 
glue to the under side of a glass cover, and last a 
foot-j)rint of the same wonderful j^rophet which he 
made when, some time at Mecca, he stepped on a 
slab of sparkling quartzite. O, but those priestly fel- 
lows, whether at Rome or Delhi, have relics, and then 
all want backsheesh for showing them. In this vast 
mosque were gathered forty thousand of the faithful 
to pray for the success of their arms when the British 
were to make the assault on the walls at the Cashmere 
Gate. But Delhi must fall in spite of Mohammedan 
prayers, and a better faith dominate this city and 
country. 

A hurried run through the bazars, seeing the odd 



. m A ND ABOUT DELHI. 45 

native products of hand and soil; the purchase of a 
shawl for the one who could not come along, a retreat 
to the inviting old dak bungalow hotel, tired and sur- 
feited with marvelous sight-seeing, ended the only day 
I was in Delhi. 



46 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 



LETTER VI. 

A COMMENCEMENT SEASON IN INDIA. 

The Methodist Theological School for India is lo- 
cated at Bareilly, and it was my fortune to attend its 
closing exercises December 6-9, 1888. In company 
with Rev. E. W. Parker, D.D., and two other mission- 
aries, I had come thirty miles from the camp-meeting 
ground at Chandusi, because a grand celebration was to 
be held the following week. I arrived at Bareilly 
December 6, and listened that night to a sermon in 
Hindustani by the Rev. C. P. Hard, of the Bengal 
Conference, on the Master's sending out the seventy. 
The next day, December 7, was spent in oral examina- 
tions and such other duties as fall in the usual routine 
of a commencement. That evening the students gave 
an entertainment, literary and musical, that, to my re- 
gret, I missed, after which, at the house of the presi- 
dent. Rev, Dr. T. J. Scott, I met the graduating class 
of seven, finding them a group of men having a noble, 
willing, devoted spirit and purpose. The commence- 
ment proper took place at eleven o'clock Saturday, 
December 8. Two schools are taught jointly, the 
theological and a normal school; the latter to pre- 
pare teachers for the educational work of our India 
Mission. In this department four had completed the 
course, receiving diplomas, but not taking public 
part in the exercises on commencement day. An 
audience composed mostly of students, their friends, 



A COMMENCEMENT SEASON IN INDIA. 47 

the teachers and professors, and visiting missionaries, 
listened. 

The young men were on the programme to make 
speeches, not to deliver orations, but they had selected 
topics, formally arranged them, and each spoke twelve 
or fifteen minutes. Here is the list of themes: "The 
King's Crier," " Times of Refreshing," " Spiritual 
Food," "The Search for Peace," "The Rainbow an 
Emblem of Christ," "The Hunt for Souls," "The 
Time has Arrived," the last being valedictory. This 
list might stand beside one prepared in a Methodist 
theological school anywhere in the United States. The 
names and themes of the graduates do not read well in 
English, Bad shah Ka Naqib being the salutatorian's 
and Waqt Apahuncha the valedictorian's theme, while 
their names were, respectively, Chote Lai and Nizam 
Ali. As the plan and argument of the young men's 
speeches were interpreted to me I judged they Avere 
doing well. The Hindustani speech does not seem to 
me at all well adapted to oratory, but if I could under- 
stand it perhaps my opinions would change. Most of 
the graduates had done some preaching for several 
years, and in their gestures I deemed I could detect 
some indications of bazar service. One or two had 
features such as an American might covet, good straight, 
well-cut, Aryan type. Their brown skins, coal-black 
hair and whiskers, and gleaming eyes were in peculiar 
contrast to their white-faced, blue-eyed ])rofessors. 

The programme had on it " Native Music," which, on 
hearing, made me think its production in any seminary 
or college in America would create a sensation. The 
instruments used were three — a long rude guitar, a 
small keg-shaped drum beaten with the finger-tips, and 
a little violin of three or four strings, the whole thing 



48 A WINTER m INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

not more than eighteen inches long and three inches wide. 
Two students sang to the accompaniment of these instru- 
ments. The key would be pitched high and then run on 
in a minor monotone, often antiphonal and recitative, 
rather than the ordinary ways of singing in America. 
President Scott whispered to me that it was " wild and 
weird," and at once I added, " rich." Dr. J. W. Waugh, 
who has been here many years and heard much of 
it, said to me that he still liked it, the beating of the 
drum making his heart thump in his breast. The songs 
were airs and sentiments of the country adapted to 
Christianity, one being in praise of Christ, another the 
peace and rest found in him. I enjoyed it greatly, and 
am promised more of it at the celebration next week. 
The native Christians especially are adepts in it, and 
use it to advantage. 

Saturday evening a reception was held, at which a 
fine gathering of English officials, native gentlemen, 
professors from the Government College, and others 
were present. Among them was a prince royal from 
Burma, who escaped King Thebaw's bloody slaughter 
of his relatives. The English government has brought 
him here to be educated in their college. His dress 
was different from that of the natives, and his face de- 
cidedly Turanian. Many of the native gentlemen 
could speak English, with one of whom I discussed 
American institutions and government, and, later, with 
another, the proposed Indian Congress. The first one 
I also plied with questions about the aborigines of In- 
dia. They were posted on all points. 

On Sunday President Scott preached the baccalaureate 
sermon at eight o'clock in Plindustani; at three the 
alnmni sermon was delivered, and at six I was com- 
pelled to preach. I had, by request, spoken a little to 



A COMMENCEMENT SEASON m mniA. 49 

the students Saturday at commencement, what I said 
being translated by President Scott. This theological 
school has sent out about one hundred and fifty stu- 
dents, all graduates but forty, and with one or two 
exceptions these men have been true to the teaching 
received in the school. They are pastors in our own 
Conferences or for other denominations, and are doing 
noble work. The two classes now in the school, and 
the new one to enter, are much larger than the one just 
graduated, and are considered very promising. Of the 
seven graduating this year one was a Brahman, two 
Sikhs, and four had no caste. 

In America commencement is associated with warm 
days, hot sun, a profusion of flowers, and not the bleak 
winds, frozen ground, and snows of December. Well, 
let me say that here the sun is so powerful that no one 
goes out without cork hat or umbrella for fear of sun- 
stroke; not a bit of frost has touched Bareilly, though 
the nights are chilly, and a profusion of flowers is on 
trees, vines, bushes, and plants, the yards and gardens 
producing masses of magnificent roses. 
4 



50 A WINTER M INDIA AND MALA TSIA. 



LETTER yil. 

INTO THE HIMALAYAS AT NAINI TAL. 

At seven o'clock in the morning, December 11, Pro- 
fessor Messmore, of our theological school at Bareilly, 
and I started horseback from the mission house at 
Huldwanee, where Rev. Thomas Craven now has 
charge, to ride to Naini Tal. The course lay along the 
fine road over the gravel-drift brought down from the 
mountains, and the first hour's ride, in face of a chill 
wind blowing down the gorge, was most exhilarating. 
It gave us a chance to see the mountains during these 
four miles before getting fully into their recesses. 
Like all the hills and mountains I have seen in India, 
they rise abruptly from the plain, broken, jagged, and 
sharp. As soon as we left the open country the luxu- 
riant vegetation assumed a new aspect; trees not seen 
on the plains, flowers peculiar to the timber, vines, 
creepers, and bushes abounded. I had heard much 
about the creepers on the trees, but was not fully pre- 
pared for what I saw. Close beside the road many 
creepers hung in long straight lines or reaches of thick 
growth from the ground upward to the tops of the tall- 
est trees. Far off on the hill-sides I could see long 
stretches of forest, the tops and limbs of t]ie trees so 
overloaded by the vine-growth that the identity of sep- 
arate trees was lost under the masses of creepers. 
The peepul-tree on the plains has a sturdy growth, the 
trunk sometimes rough and i^artly divided, in other 



INTO TEE EIMALA YAS AT NAINI TAL. 51 

cases smooth as an American beech. But in the thick 
forest on the hill-sides I found that it acted as a creeper, 
throwing itself around the solid trunk of some other 
tree, inclosing it in its arms as if a sentient thing, mak- 
ing a net- work of formation like lattice clear around the 
body of the other. It was a wonderful growth. Grace- 
ful festoons, suggesting swings for wood-nymphs, often 
fell close to the ground •between two supporting trees. 
Dense undergrowth of plants new to one from the 
West in places covered the rich, damp ground. As we 
rode up the gorge made by the waters of Naini Tal 
River here and there a little plot was cultivated, wheat, 
bananas, oranges, lemons, and other products growing 
on the terraces in great luxuriance, if only water could 
be obtained for irrigation. When yet five miles from 
the place Professor Messmore pointed out some of the 
buildings at Naini Tal, far, far above us. But the 
good horses carried us up steadily, surely. The trees 
began to change again, now to more of temperate feat- 
ures, the willow, acacia, pine, and a little short of Naini 
Tal the oak, appearing. Strange birds flitted among the 
trees, one much like our robin, another a blue jay whose 
tail-feathers were full fourteen inches long, and a jungle 
cock, considered the lineal ancestor of the common 
fowl, slowly walked across the road ahead of us. He 
was bronze, red, and black, shaped much like the game- 
cock, with long curved tail-feathers such as we see often 
in American roosters. 

Three miles short of Naini Tal a big brewery blots 
the landscape and sends out its liquid curse to blight 
Anglo-Saxon and Hindu homes alike. Then a steep 
climb, part of the way on foot, sometimes riding, and 
being gladly met by Professor Foote, who knew we 
were coming, we at last, having ridden sixteen miles 



52 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

that morning, crossed the pretty bridge spanning the 
outlet of Naini Tal, and gazed upon that place of 
beauty, rest, and health. It is a great basin with the 
lake in the midst. On every side rise high hills save 
the way we came, where the water plunges rapidly- 
down the deep gorge toward the plains. The hill-sides, 
from five to fifteen hundred feet above the lake, 
are covered with a sparse growth of oak, cedar, pine, 
and other familiar trees, the level of the lake being 
about six thousand feet above the sea. Houses of the 
missionaries, English officials, schools, and churches 
are scattered on every part of the inclosing hill-sides, 
helping to make a most charming landscape, as the 
white stone houses, gardens, yards, and parks cover 
every part. Under direction of Professor Foote I soon 
was taken to the home of Rev. John Baume, the pastor 
of the English-speaking church, and I found in the 
hospitality of himself and wife most pleasant remind- 
ers of American spirit. The mission-grounds, having 
been bought early in the history of this charming sani- 
tarium along the wise lines of Dr. William Butler's 
insight, are ample and centrally located, while the 
church of the English audience is as wisely posted. 
The boys' school, under the direction of Professor F. 
W. Foote, is now prospering. He is hoping to purchase 
a fine property soon, located on the eastern slopes, 
where it can overlook all the lake and surrounding re- 
gions. The girls' school is directly opposite the other, 
in the more shady groves of the west side, but also 
in a place giving an entrancing view. Miss Knowles, 
sister of Dr. D. C. Knowles, has done a noble work in 
founding this school, both for Indian Methodism and 
the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. There is 
an Anglican church and a Roman Catholic one, as 



INTO THE HIMALAYAS AT NAINI TAL. 58 

well as a couple of Hindu temples and a Mohammedan 
mosque, in this quiet mountain nook. 

Naturally enough, I wanted to see all I could the two 
days I had to stay, so the first afternoon Professor 
Foote came to show me to a spot from which I could 
obtain a fine view of the great mountains beyond. The 
twelve-year-old girl of Rev. Dr. J. W. Waugh went 
pony-back with ns to " Snow Seat," a thousand feet 
above the lake, on the north-east side. From the top 
of Khutab Minar, near Delhi, I had obtained a tantaliz- 
ing glimpse of the "Snowy Range;" from Moradabad 
the white peaks stood out dimly to view one morning, 
while on the cars in coming to the foot of the mount- 
ains I had also caught the white gleam above the lower 
ranges ; but now, as a little behind the sprightly Nora 
Waugh I reached " Snow Seat," the grandeur of the 
vast uplift burst fully on ray sight. I felt it surely re- 
paid me for much time and trouble. These mountains 
are not a single range, but a mighty uplift extending 
more than a hundred miles across their axis. The 
" Snowy Range " is sixty miles from Naini Tal, and a 
hundred miles of its extent burst on the vision that 
moment. All the glory of that sight cannot be put 
into words. Sharp peaks, snow-clad, for two thousand 
feet, run up like gigantic saw-teeth, a hundred of them 
in view at once. Their steep, ragged outline and 
broken sides showed their formation to be geologically 
recent, as those close about us did. The declining sun 
lay a soft pink radiance over the snow that was charm- 
ing, while the ranges between us and the snow were 
touched with the lights, shades, colors, and outlines 
common to such a sight. With the glass I could see 
great glaciers, the crevasses across two or three of them 
being plainly discernible by the hollows in the surface 



S4 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

of the recent snows. As the sun sank lower it brought 
out in fine distinctness the profound gorges and spaces in 
the great range, and at the same time tipped the peaks 
here and there with a glory all their own. A crag only 
on some peak would catch the sun, while all the rest 
would be hidden by a greater peak west of it. Finally, 
as the sun totally disappeared, a ghostly, ghastly white 
on the " Snowy Range" took the place of the pink of 
that luminary, producing an unearthly beauty that to 
me seemed finer than the sunset. The sky for a few 
moments held the pink that last was seen on the mount- 
ains; above that was a rich green, which in turn melted 
into orange; then the blue of the untinted sky pre- 
vailed. We slowly descended to the dim basin of Naini 
Tal and the lighted houses. 

The next morning Professor Foote, by previous ar- 
rangements, was at Mr. Baume's long before daylight 
for the ascent of a still higher peak, Cheena, to see the 
sunrise on the mountains. As I waited a few min- 
utes the zodiacal light shot a mighty pyramid of bright- 
ness over the eastern mountain-tops, as it is not seen in 
m.ore northern climes. A ride of an hour and a quarter, 
first through a stretch of yards and among private 
houses, then up the ascent by steep, narrow, zigzag 
paths, our horses puffing heavily as the air grew thinner 
and thinner, up still around the top of Cheena, through 
heavy oak forests, till at last, as the daylight had deep- 
ened, we reached the crest, more than eight thousand 
feet above the sea. From this point we could see more 
of the " Snowy Range " than from " Snow Seat," a 
stretch of fully two hundred miles. The lights and 
shadows over the mountains surrounding us and those 
short of the " Snowy Range " were most exquisite. A 
slight smoke or mist hung among them in such a way 



INTO THE HIM ALA YAS AT NAINI TAL. 55 

that the tops of the mountains would show the dark 
green of their wooded slopes, then gradually change 
below to purple, opalescent, and light smoky blue. The 
sunrise, brilliant in the gorgeous red, orange, green, 
and blue of the sky and burnished gold of the cloud- 
flecks of the east, did not color the snow-covered peaks 
as richly as I had hoped. We were partly on the wrong 
side. Still, some rare sights of single peaks being 
touched with the pink that persisted on the snow the 
night before were granted us. Then the pure white 
took the place of the pink as the sunlight increased. 
Great bars of the sun's rays shot from crests and gorges 
among the lower mountains, across the valleys and 
shadows, in a glory that would defy all skill of painter. 
As we sat on the dry grass that covered the crest I 
suddenly noticed that masses of edelweiss were growing 
all about us. I knew it was to be found in the Hima- 
layas as well as in the Alps, but for the time had for- 
gotten it. Some enterprising Swiss should come here 
and get bushels of it, and, taking it home, sell it as they 
do in the Alps, at a franc a sprig. A couple of Goorkha 
soldiers from the garrison below came each with a gun 
on a hunting trip, and were barefooted, though j)atches 
of snow in shady places were on Cheena. These men 
are aboriginal inhabitants of India, found here by the 
Aryan Hindus when they entered India. When did 
these Goorkhas and other Turanian hillmen enter India ? 
That afternoon, as the shadows began lengthening, 
in company with Mr. and Mrs. Baume and Professor 
Messmore, I visited the American Cemetery, where lie 
the bodies of a number of devoted men and women 
who counted not their lives dear to themselves, so they 
might carry the Gospel to suffering India. Mrs. Bishop 
Thoburn, Mrs. N. G. Cheney, a child of Dr. Butler's, 



56 A WINTER m INDIA AND MALA TSIA. 

named Washington, are among them. Their resting-place 
is a retired, quiet nook. Thence we went along shady 
walks by the west side of the lake to the girls' school, 
to find its present principal, Miss Easton, frying dough- 
nuts like a Yankee woman, though she declared she 
was a Knickerbocker. But she could make good dough- 
nuts if not a Yankee. Doughnuts in India! It made 
one think of his Western home, of his mother, sisters, 
and wife, all at a time. For five months I had not eaten 
one. That school there among the trees is a monument 
to American womanhood that has reared it, and is to be 
a power to aid Western civilization, with all it means to 
woman in getting a firm hold in India. From there we 
went to the famous rock shrine of the Indian goddess 
Naini, close by the lake-side, where it is said the natives 
formerly sacrificed a human being each year to the local 
deity, and they now declare that the goddess will still 
secure her victim by a person being drowned in the lake 
every year. For themselves they are now content to 
kill a goat yearly at this place where I saw the sign of 
the goddess, some tridents painted on the rock, and a 
handful of fresh sweet-meats which some devotee had 
but just offered. A walk by Hangman's Bay, suggestive 
of the awful days of the mutiny, across the outlet of 
the lake, up the hill to Professor Foote's, where a sub- 
stantial dinner was offered us, and also banks of roses 
grown out-doors, even in those mountains, ended our 
wanderings for that day among the Himalayas. 



\ 



AT A GAMP-MEETING IN INDIA. 57 



LETTER YIII. 

AT A CAMP-MEETING IN INDIA. 

They do not call it a camp-meeting here, but a mela. 
This word means a gathering, and is especially applied 
to the native religious festivals at certain times and 
places where tens of thousands gather; and thus the 
camp-meeting becomes a Christian mela. This designa- 
tion, painted in large characters, is hung upon the trees at 
the entrance to these grounds, being given in English, 
Urdu, and Arabic. More than a camp-meeting is tak- 
ing place. It is both a district Conference and a camp- 
meeting, hence the aptness of the native name. For 
several days before the time for opening tents were 
being put up and preparations similar to those occurring 
in America at such a time took place. Chandusi, where 
it is held, is centrally located for the Rohilcund Dis- 
trict of the ISTorth India Conference. Dr. E. W. Parker, 
presiding elder of this district, is in charge. It is at a 
railroad junction, and held, free of any charges, in a fine 
mango grove. 

Let people in New England take a peep at this camp- 
meeting-ground. It is level, dry, the mango grove cov- 
ering sixty acres or more, and is divided by the main 
road running northward from the contiguous city of 
Chandusi. As I write — December 14, but one would 
think it early September in America — the leaves above 
us are all green, the trees full of birds and monkeys, 
and the sun so strong through the day that one must 



58 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA TSIA. 

protect himself from it with a pith hat and an um- 
brella; yet tlie nights are thoroughly chilly, but without 
frost. The m:ingo-tree looks much like a chestnut- 
tree, low, branching, thick-topped, though the leaves 
remain on all winter, as is true of the trees in India, 
though they look like our deciduous ones. The mis- 
sionaries' tents are all on one side of this road, with the 
tents and inclosure for the school-girls, while the tents 
and huts for the native families and the school-boys are 
on the other side. Centrally, between these two sec- 
tions, close to the great wagon-road, is an immense 
awning under which two thousand people can sit — 
on the ground, and never in chairs, for this is the 
way the Indians sit. Straw was first spread on the 
ground under this awning, then native matting and 
carpeting above that. The American missionaries 
bring their own chairs, while at the outer edge of the 
space a few natives may be seen sitting on benches 
provided. 

An audience here presents a unique appearance. 
Glance at it. The white turbans and jaunty students' 
caps worn by the men and boys through the services 
produce, as their wearers all sit on the left of the open 
space kept as an aisle, a most varied and picturesque 
effect, in contrast with the dark-brown expressive faces 
and gleaming black eyes beneath them. At the right 
sit the women and school-girls, as compactly as people 
on seats cannot gather, each one having the head and 
shoulders, morning and evening, covered with a thin, 
coarse, dark red-and-black calico quilt of native make. 
In the middle of the day their heads are covered with 
white chuddars. There are bright faces, full of mean- 
ing and hope, as Christianity has come to them bear- 
ing its burden of help to woman. A vivid contrast is 



AT A GAMP MEETING IN INDIA. 59 

plainly to be seen between these women and girls 
and those still in the old beliefs. On the outskirts of 
these Chandusi audiences are always files of men, 
usually Hindus or Mohammedans, standing in respect- 
ful attention listening to the services ; some passing 
coolie stops, with his load on his head or back, also to 
listen. 

I took a turn among the native cottages under the 
mango-trees. The sly monkeys are much more afraid 
of us Western people than of the natives, scampering 
away as we approach. The people at such a gathering 
as this set down their tents or huts as each one chooses, 
little attempt being made at regularity. A few of them 
have cotton tents more or less commodious, but most of 
the homes are native-made and peculiar. They are of 
coarse, native grass, of thatched structure, ten feet long 
by six wide, their form being like setting a narrow roof 
down on the ground. Under this primitive covering 
old mats, carpeting, or straw is spread for sleeping. 
Their cooking apparatus consists of a small hollow 
space in the ground, around which, and raised a few 
inches above the level of the earth, is a horseshoe- 
shaped ridge of hard, baked mud, six inches across, on 
which they set their copper kettles or flat iron coverings 
for baking thin loaves of bread. 

The District Conference held a three-days' session 
December 11-13, which, considering that there are 221 
members of it, is quite an aifair. Of this number 8 
are American missionaries, 19 ordained native preach- 
ers in Conference relations, 7 ordained local preachers, 
and 47 unordained native preachers. The other 140 
members are exhorters and teachers, though in some 
instances one man combines both these duties. This 
body of workers all had to be taken through the dis- 



60 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

ciplinary course of examinations, reports, and appoint- 
ments, so that their duties were hardly less than tliose 
of an Annual Conference. One specialty in the reports 
was the amount of collections, looking to self-support. 
After the work, character, and progress in studies had 
been ascertained, seven were recommended for ordina- 
tion and four to admittance on trial to the Annual Con- 
ference. It has become a rule here to keep a man in 
the work four years as a local preacher, having him 
take the course of study prescribed for local preachers 
before he can be recommended to the Annual Confer- 
ence on trial. At this District Conference nineteen 
were granted local preachers' license, and all given 
work but two, who hold some government office. Six- 
teen young men were recommended to the theological 
school at Bareilly. It will be seen from these things 
that Dr. Parker's duties are not light. 

The real camp-meeting was opened by a sermon 
from our native pastor at Moradabad, Hiram L. Cutting. 
It seemed earnest and practical as its outline and sen- 
timent were given to me. Miss Leonard, the holiness 
evangelist, was present and spoke a few moments on 
her specialty. The noon hour was given to the young 
people from the five school stations, Bijnour, Morada- 
bad, Budaon, Bareilly, and Shahjehanpore. Their lit- 
erary programme consisted of recitations, songs, Bible 
paraphrases, a debate, essays, and the like, and was deemed 
fine in its merit and delivery. " Sweet Home," sung in 
English by Miss Doherty, Mrs. Parker's assistant, and 
Miss Jeffreys, assisted by six native girls, was inspir- 
ing. One of the marvels of that hour was to see two 
young women enter the debate with two young men — 
and, as it would be likely to happen in America, beat 
them — ^the young women standing there, modest and 



ATA CAMP.MEETING IN INDIA. 61 

bashful, to be sure, yet before two thousand people, 
and that in India, where woman has been taught for 
scores of generations that she is only a beast of burden, 
a thing of use, man's slave, to be kept veiled, a pris- 
oner in her own house. Christianity is teaching some 
of the daughters of India a few of their privileges. 
At four o'clock in the afternoon was a grand parade of 
the Anti-Tobacco League, in which more than eight hun- 
dred walked, the banner for the largest number at 
one place being awarded to Moradabad. The tobacco 
habit here is even a greater burden than in America, and 
this movement among the native Christians, the preach- 
ers, teachers, and young people, having been inaugu- 
rated and carried out by Drs. Scott, Parker, and others, 
is full of worth and promise. 

The preaching was done partly by native preachers, 
partly by Americans. Rev. Mr. Lucas, from the Pres- 
byterian Mission, was present and preached once. As 
all the sermons were in the vernacular I could get 
them only by their being translated to me as they were 
going on. One of the districts of the North India Con- 
ference is in charge of a native, Zahur ul Haqq, who 
preached Saturday morning. See him as he stands 
there addressing the great audience of eager listeners ! 
He is elderly, has gray whiskers and hair, the former 
heavy and long, the latter scant and curling a bit on 
his neck, the top of his head bald. Such a head and 
face are worth looking at ! If there is any thing in 
the shape of heads his is metaphysical, logical, a high 
pointed one, while the face, the heavy brows, Roman 
nose, and the large strong mouth show a man of firm- 
ness and energy. Such he is. His height is slightly 
more than medium, his build firm, somewhat inclined 
to corpulency. How is he dressed ? In a long loosely- 



62 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

fitting coat of quilted calico, such as many of the men 
wear, combining tlie cut of a dressing-gown and over- 
coat, and reaching nearly to his ankles, his feet in- 
closed in good shoes and stockings. His manner of 
preaching is direct, forcible, animated, and his points 
on the theme that Christ came to seek and save are 
well put. Mr. Haqq was formerly a Mohammedan. 
Being present at a love-feast, and listening to the testi- 
monies, he believed, was soundly converted, and, hav- 
ing been previously educated, was set at work with 
most pleasing results. 

Sunday, as in America, was the great day of the 
feast. It opened with a love-feast at eight o'clock. 
Dr. E. W. Parker, presiding elder, was in charge, 
with a dozen or twenty other missionaries present. 
The singing of our familiar church tunes to words 
that one does not understand conveys a strange 
impression, but I could sing the English words 
in the loud volume that swelled in the vernacular 
from two thousand natives. Those two thousand 
under the broad awning in the midst of green groves 
of wide-spreading mango-trees are an inspiration to a 
Western man. The dark, earnest, happy faces of the 
men and women, of the boys and girls, as they show 
so pleasantly in contrast with white turbans and caps, 
and the dark red, green, and brown chuddars, speak 
volumes for the Christianity that has set them right 
with God and man. As they begin to speak, the men, 
who are all seated on one side of an open aisle, and 
then, after a while, the women on the other side, it can 
be seen, if not understood, that they have an experi- 
ence to tell. O blessed gospel power that sets free 
the tongue to tell of its victories! 

Here are wise men grown gray during twenty-five 



AT A OAMP-MEETINO IN INDIA. 63 

years of labor in our mission work in India, and work- 
ing beside them men who once were Mohammedans, 
Jews, Hindus — and even Turanians, tliat old race in- 
habiting this country before the Hindus. Of the mis- 
sionaries some were from Europe, most from America. 
A Kentucky Presbyterian mingled his joy with an 
Ohio Methodist. Said one native worker: "A year 
ago this meeting prayed for my work, and God has 
been blessing me in it; and now I would like you to 
pray for it the year to come just four minutes." An old 
man like Abraham, leaning on his staff, said that he 
was the Lord's; living he was the Lord's, dying he was 
the Lord's. Another: "I want my heart to be a fount- 
ain of grace, to drink myself and offer to others." 
Many said they loved the Lord with all their heart. 
One from the Bareilly Normal School said he had been 
to the camp-meeting six years before, and never re- 
ceived any light, but that at his own town a Salvation 
Army girl had enabled him to enter the light. An- 
other said the time was when he could not speak in 
meeting; now he could not keep still for the love of 
Christ in his heart. A high-caste Brahman who was put 
into jail at Bareilly for helping to mob one of our na- 
tive preachers in the bazar, and who had said he 
should become a Christian when he got out, spoke, say- 
ing that once he was not saved, but was now. An- 
other, " Once I was blind, now I see," Many recited 
Scripture, others hymns. The witnessing lasted two 
solid hours, and in that time those who kept count say 
that nearly three hundred spoke, and then when Dr. 
Parker asked all to rise who wanted to witness but had 
not done so the mass who stood up was so great that 
it seemed as though no one had spoken. It was a scene 
certain to assure any who may question if missionary 



64 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

work in India pays that at least in the Rohilcund Dis- 
trict it pays a thousand-fold. 

Probably sixteen hundred or more native Chris- 
tians sat under the awning at that love-feast. After 
witnessing a call was made for the unconverted to 
come forward for prayers, and thirty-three soon re- 
sponded, mostly young men and women, and numbers 
of them later witnessed to salvation. At noon, in 
connection with Miss Leonard, the evangelist, I was set 
at work by Dr. Parker with the native preachers and 
teachers. A hundred or more of these were present 
under the awning at the same time that other meet- 
ings were going on elsewhere. The woman's meeting- 
tent was full to overflowing, while the boys' meet- 
ing and the girls' were also fall. At the awning I 
spoke of the baptism and power of the Holy Spirit, 
Rev. Dr. Robert Hoskins of our mission translating. 
It seemed slow, difficult work, yet I hope good was 
done. Miss Leonard spoke after me, and almost all of 
those present came forward seeking the fullness of the 
Spirit, and many deep, full consecrations were made. 
It was a time of power and of freedom obtained from 
all sin. Following this came a service at which four 
men and nine children were baptized. 

At three o'clock the great meeting of the day took 
place. Rev. Dr. Johnson, of the Lucknow District, 
preached to an immense audience, including Hindus, 
Mohammedans, nominal Christians, and those active 
in the work. The awning space was crammed and at 
least a thousand stood up outside those sitting. It was 
a time to inspire a man. Dr. Johnson, using the text, 
" If ye love me, keep my commandments," and standing 
centrally under the awning, powerfully impressed the 
respectful listeners. Following him came tAVO rousing 



AT A GAMP-MEETING IN INDIA. 65 

exhortations, first by Rev. Dr. Hoskins, then Rev. Dr. 
Parker, the whole crowd nearly all staying to the end. 
It was one of the opportunities of a man's life to speak 
to so many who were generally regarded as heathen. 

In the evening another interesting service took place. 
Hardly any save native Christians were present, but 
about two thousand of them were seated under the 
awning. Rev. Dr. B. H. Badley spoke on Tit. ii, 14 — 
on holiness as a condition for successful work in God's 
vineyard. It was a strong sermon, its main features 
being translated to me, as were those of Dr. Johnson's. 
I spoke afterward on the theme of the sermon. Im- 
mediately following that a sacramental service was 
held under the conduct of Rev. Dr. P. T; Wilson, as- 
sisted by three American missionaries and three native 
preachers. It was a most interesting time. It was 
estimated that eight hundred persons partook of the 
sacrament. Lines, sometimes double ones, reaching 
across the awning were formed on the carpeting, and 
the hearty acceptance by the people was most pleasant. 
Those who had been of diverse races and far distinct 
castes knelt side by side* As the service was closing 
Dr. Parker knelt, as it happened, by the side of a 
Hindu boy for the sacrament, and one native preacher 
brought him the bread and another the wine. The 
whole scene was affecting; the still moonlight night, 
the broad awning lighted by lamps hung on the sup- 
porting poles, the dark faces of the listeners, the varied 
costumes, the issues discussed, the close attention paid 
by the people, all combined to make it a scene never to 
be forgotten. 

So mightily was I impressed with the day and all its 
promise that I sent Chaplain McCabe this note, which he 
flung out to the American public: 
5 



66 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

" Chandusi, India, December 16, 1888. 
"Dear Chaplain: I wish you could have attended 
the love-feast of the mela here this morning. At least 
1,600 Christians were present, and in two hours' time 
almost 300 spoke in true Methodist, Christian spirit. 
They were all the way from the old man leaning on his 
staff to the sprightly boys and girls ten and twelve 
years old from the day and Sunday-schools. The sing- 
ing was uplifting, though I could understand the tunes 
better than the words. The glory of God was present. 
It was about as hard to stop their testifying when the 
time came to stop as it is sometimes in America. These 
people wanted to tell about the Christ whose death 
had redeemed them. It was almost worth coming 
clear to India to see and hear. After all had spoken 
who could have the time a great host stood up to- 
gether to testify by that. Then, as Dr. Parker invited 
them forward for prayer, thirty-three came, sixteen 
men and seventeen women, most of whom afterward 
professed conversion. If the work of getting money 
lags in America the conversion of souls here does 
not. This district, the Moradabad, reports this year 
1,475 baptisms. The cause goes on ; the mission- 
aries are shouting happy. Every-where the demand 
is for more workers. Push for the money and send 
on the workers. It is God's time and man's oppor- 
tunity. The day all through has been a glorious one. 
Thousands have waited on the word. Thirteen were 
baptized this afternoon." 

Monday morning a song and prayer service was held, 
after which the appointments of native local preachers, 
helpers, exhorters, and teachers, made by the District 
Conferences, to the number of about two hundred, for 



AT A GAMP-MEETING IN INDIA. 67 

both Presiding Elders Haqq and Parker's districts, were 
read. It seemed like the close of an Annual Conference. 
Then the niela ended, and every one set out to his home 
and work. Who can weigh the good done for time and 
eternity ? 



68 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA 7SIA. 



LETTER IX. 

EDUCATION WORK IN NORTH INDIA CONFERENCE. 

Very soon after landing among the Methodist mis- 
sionaries here I became convinced that the schools sus- 
tained in the cities and villages were among the most 
successful agencies used to build up our work broadly 
and safely. Subsequent information and inquiries have 
confirmed and strengthened that opinion. One of the 
problems that has always confronted the Church, from 
the earliest centuries, has been how to make pure, real, 
and intelligent Christian character in the converts from 
heathenism. Think of Paul's letters, along these lines, 
to the Corinthians, Galatians, and others. The Roman 
monks who led our Anglo-Saxon ancestors to the truth, 
as can be seen by reading the history of the early 
Church in England, wrestled with the same problem. 
One just converted from the worship of idols, the spell 
of superstitions, the force of heathen customs, and from 
the long list of mighty influences which in paganism 
combine to dwarf and enslave the spirit, cannot in a 
day or year pass from those things to a broad-minded, 
firm, free Christian character. Many of the old roots 
will remain. How to build up character, then, is a mighty 
problem here as every-where. During nearly a genera- 
tion of experience the missionaries have found that the 
work which can be done in the evangelical school is one 
of the most potent means to this end. They are wise 
who put large sums of money into the schools. 



EDUCATION WORK IN NORTH INDIA CONFERENCE. 69 

Take, for instance, the system of schools set in mo- 
tion by the munificent gift of Dr. J. F. Goucher, the 
head-quarters of which are at Moraclabad, under the 
direction of Dr. and Mrs. E. W. Parker. There is the 
Goucher High School for advanced pupils in that city ; 
then a hundred schools are scattered over the old prov- 
ince of Rohilcund for both boys and girls. Of boys' 
schools of the primary grade Dr. Goucher's endowment 
supports sixty, in which there are being taught more 
than two thousand pupils. The conditions upon which 
his endowment is used make it obligatory that the 
teachers hired shall be Christians and members of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, that each school shall be 
opened every day with reading of the Bible, singing a 
Christian hymn, and prayer, all in the vernacular. In 
addition to this the teachers are urged by the mission- 
aries to visit tlie parents and friends of these boys at 
their homes after teaching hours, to talk with them and 
interest them in Christianity. These schools, according 
to Dr. Goucher's conditions, must be in villages and 
communities that are inquirers after Christianity, and 
be regarded as evangelical forces seeking to lead the 
children and people to Christ. Out of these primary 
schools the brightest and most promising of the boys 
are being passed, after examination, to the high school 
at Moradabad, where they can have the benefit of one 
of the hundred Goucher scholarships awaiting them. 
Dr. Goucher sustains forty girls' schools of primary 
grade also, located and conditioned like the others, from 
which there is going a constant stream of the most 
promising of the girls to Mrs. Parker's school at Morad- 
abad, where Dr. Goucher has a few scholarships, but 
which he is said to purpose increasing to forty. All 
through the North India Conference similar schools of 



70 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

primary grade are sustained by mission funds, or other- 
wise, feeders of the various graded schools established 
at the great centers. In the two high schools at Morad- 
abad, and at other places, the young men and women 
are prepared for matriculation in the government uni- 
versities at Calcutta, Allahabad, and elsewhere. 

Through the one hundred schools sustained by the 
Goucher Fund about three thousand families are directly 
reached; and over three hundred thousand people, those 
in the four castes — Mazbi Sikhs, Leather- workers, 
Sweepers, and Thakurs — that are most fully patronizing 
the schools, are more or less positively reached by that 
agency. During the five years this fund has been 
operative, between one and two thousand souls have been 
converted through the means thus put at the disposal 
of the missionaries. Here is a field so promising that 
its success should lead other rich Christians of the United 
States to put their money at work for Christ in it. 
This is done by some. Mr. J. H. Frey, of Baltimore, 
before his death had seventeen scholarships in use at 
the Bareilly Theological School, and in his will secured 
to the Oudh District enough to support about thirty 
j)rimary schools. Mr. W. E. Blackstone, of Chicago, 
has put $3,000 into the new training-school and dea- 
coness home at Muttra. Let the good work go on. 
In all the North India Conference this year reports 488 
schools, with over 1,600 pupils. O, but the cry there 
is on every hand here for workers ! Not less than a 
thousand openings for work in the North India Confer- 
ence alone, with magnificent promise of success, must 
be refused this year for lack of means and workers. 
The sum of forty or fifty dollars will sustain a primary 
school a year like those found already to produce such 
rich harvests. 



EDUCATION WORK IN NORTH INDIA CONFERENCE. 71 

A remarkable paper on early marriage, prepared by 
Mrs. Dr. Mansell, and read at a district conference, had 
so much of worth that it has been printed and widely 
scattered. It claims, among other things, that the 
physical deterioration of the Indians is owing more to 
marrying too young than to the climate. It is a start- 
ling statement, and if it can be sustained by facts and 
figures opens up new demands on Christian care and 
philanthropy. Our missionaries seek delay in marriage 
among the young people under their direction, and in 
this effort commendable success is being reached. Al- 
ready later marriage, better food and clothing, and 
other things are giving a sturdier physique, and with 
that a better brain-power; so that the young people 
sent up from our schools to government examinations 
for the universities and other fields succeed better than 
non-Christians, for they are found to be mentally and 
physically better able to stand the excessive strain of 
great intellectual efforts. 

It is the policy of our missionaries to build up graded 
schools at each of the larger stations, so besides those 
at Moradabad they are at Cawnpore, Lucknow, Bareilly, 
Budaon, and elsewhere, for boys or girls. Like those at 
Moradabad, they are fed from the lower schools, though 
some of the young people come directly from the 
Christian families. In these schools have been prepared 
most of the native workers used by the missionaries. 
They get culture here that both in degree and kind 
they would otherwise lack. Along with the regu- 
lar studies pursued the great principles of Christianity 
are taught, and thus they become rooted and grounded 
in the faith, and at the same time get almost wholly 
freed from tlie baneful effects of the heathenism which 
must always act on their parents, who have failed of 



72 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA TSIA. 

similar advantages. Preachers, exhort ers, teachers, 
both men and women, zenana workers, helpers, and 
others are sent out from these schools by the scores, so 
that our widening fields are partly supplied. But the 
demand is greater than the supply. Hundreds of native 
men and women could be judiciously set at work at 
once in the three India Conferences if they could be 
obtained. 

When a young man shows special aptitude as a pros- 
pective preacher, he is, on finishing his course at some 
one of these schools, sent to the theological school at 
Bareilly, where he can have a three-years' course to fit 
him better for the ministry. His schooling then does 
not cease, for he is usually required to take the course 
of study for local preachers, and serve in that oftice for 
four years; and then, if promising enough, is recom- 
mended to the Annual Conference, where he takes the 
regular Conference course during the four years as we 
do at home; and this year they have presented to the 
Conference a post-graduate course which the preachers 
can elect to carry on after their regular course is ended. 
By these means there is being obtained a fine body of 
native ministers who are doing good work for God and 
Methodism. These men are from different nationalities 
— Jews, Hindus, Mohammedans, Turanians — and from all 
castes — Brahmans, Rajputs, Sikhs, Chamars, Sweepers — 
and of no caste. That God is no respecter of persons 
has illustration here. High caste, low caste, outcasts, sit 
together, study together, eat and work together, sing 
and pray together, lifted to the high estate of children 
of God. Cultivated women, without whose elevation 
India cannot be elevated, sit as wives or sisters with 
these men, having the many-phased enfranchisement 
that Christianity gives to all. 



EDUCATION WORK IN NORTH INDIA CONFERENCE. 73 

Methodism in India feels that the time has come for 
yet higher education of its youth, the same as early 
Methodism felt in the United States. It must have 
full colleges. It justly dreads to send the young men 
and women carefully taught Christian truth in the high 
schools to mingle, in a great university, with the Hindu 
and Mohammedan young people to be found in govern- 
ment colleges, lest in some instances they become 
drawn away. A growing number are prepared every 
year for matriculation, so that a college for young men 
and one for young women are imperatively demanded. 
This need is so pressing that last year the Conference 
voted that Dr. Bad ley, in charge of the Centennial 
High School at Lucknow, should go ahead a year with 
his class beyond matriculation ; and this he did. In 
the same city the Girls' High School, Miss De Vine in 
charge, had had its classes carried into a college depart- 
ment two years under the efficient teaching of Miss 
Kyle. Here, then, is an embryo college for young 
men and one for young women. They are demanded 
by the advanced needs of the young people, to save 
them fully to us, to prepare still more highly cultured 
workers in our mission, and to give among the people 
due prominence to the exalted place we occupy in the 
field of education. 

Indeed, Dr. Badley has taken steps already toward 
building a college. A board of trustees has been 
organized several years. At Lucknow, directly oppo- 
site the mission compound and the Centennial High 
School, is an open plot of five acres, formerly belonging 
to government, which has been presented to our mis- 
sionaries for the purpose of erecting a college. It is 
worth four thousand dollars. It is most opportune, and 
comes in answer to needs and prayers. It comes when 



74 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA 

government is favorably disposed to mission work and 
schools. It comes, on the other hand, when the mis- 
sionary treasury is so depleted that it cannot devote 
any thing this year to building. The conditions of the 
gift are that it must have a building erected on it, 
which the government will approve, within two years. 
Plans have been submitted which the government- has 
approved, a contract for building, most advantageous in 
price and payments, has been concluded, and our mis- 
sionaries feel that some way, by some means, the project 
must go ahead. Here is a chance for some rich man in 
America to build himself a lasting monument and make 
a name fragrant w^ith blessings to humanity. What 
chances India offers for money to go on perpetuating 
its rich blessings and multiplying its living forces coined 
into Christian character in the young people it can send 
out to help in redeeming those masses ! 



m AND ABOUT MUTTRA. 75 



LETTER X. 

IN AND ABOUT MUTTRA. 

The railroad run from the Cliandusi raela with Pro- 
fessor Foote and Dr. J. E. Scott and wife, though 
tedious in slowness, was most pleasant in associations, 
and the awaiting ghari at the station at nine o'clock at 
night was gladly welcome to take us to the mission 
house. An early chota hazari next morning prepared 
us for a drive of four hours about the city and mission 
property. Our mission at Muttra is a recent venture, 
and already has fine promise. Nine acres of land from 
which our folks were kept for some time were finally 
secured at advantageous conditions on perpetual lease, 
and on this land already five mission buildings are going 
up for both the parent board and the Woman's Foreign 
Missionary Society. The location is airy, sightly, com- 
modious, while the buildings seem to be fine adaptations 
to the needs of the hot India climate. Several points for 
mission work had been opened near Muttra; in the heart 
of the city a school at which a hundred boys already are 
in attendance. Here and at two places where mission 
work is begun more than a hundred thousand people 
live. O, but the swarming masses of people to be seen 
in such a city as this ! In driving through the streets 
the utmost care must be taken not to run over them, 
and the native driver is constantly shouting the idiom, 
" Save yourselves ! " Where the boys' school is kept 
Dr. Scott has Sunday services, and meets every Sunday 



76 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

evening a packed house of the educated natives and 
others, who eagerly listen to the Gospel. What a 
chance for a missionary ! A block is for sale cheap, 
fronting on the main street of the city, and reaching 
back to the Jumna River, that I hope can be secured, 
and which could be used for school and church pur- 
poses. Under the shadow of some Mohammedan min- 
arets rising above a fine mosque a location could be se- 
cured by perpetual lease, with ample room for a hospital, 
training-school for women, and a dispensary. If only 
the money could be had for these purposes this holy city 
of the Hindus could be so entered at this beginning 
time as to give grand promise of victories for Christ. 

Muttra is one of the most sacred cities of India. It is 
a center, here and at Brindaban, only six miles away, of 
Krishna's worship, as one of his incarnations is located at 
this place in the myths regarding him. Here, on the banks 
of the Jumna, he is said to have rested, the place now 
being marked by a stone, after his victory over Kansa, 
an uncle who tried to usurp the government. An ancient 
stone fort, said to be two thousand years old, was 
Kansa's stronghold. From the railroad bridge we 
could see half a mile of the bathing "ghats," where 
hundreds of natives were going down into the river in 
the sharp cold of the early morning to bathe as a relig- 
ious rite; but you are glad on sanitary grounds that 
they do so. The Jumna is only less a sacred river than 
the Ganges, and where they unite their waters near 
Allahabad the location is considered peculiarly holy. 
After seeing this interesting view for a while we wan- 
dered along these " ghats," seeing in one place near the 
river-bank a tall sandstone tower raised to mark the 
spot where, two hundred years ago, a noble Hindu 
lady performed suttee with her dead husband's body. 



m AND ABOUT MUTTRA. 77 

Holy monkeys ran about in the temples along the 
river-bank, thievish, clirty, disgusting, while sacred 
turtles lifted their sluggish heads above the waters of 
the Jumna to eat the sweets thrown as offerings into it. 
In another place, where there was a swarm of bathers 
going into the water and coming from it, two or three 
stone arches stood, grown old in the passage of years, 
under each of which some rich rajah had years before 
been weighed over against his weight in money, and then 
the coins scattered among the crowds of waiting people. 
As we were there a new one, farther up the court from 
the river^ was being built, under which a certain rich man 
was to be weighed at the great mela which was coming 
off in March, and then his weight in money to be scat- 
tered among the expectant masses. All this is done to 
gain merit for this world and the world after this one. 
Get these devotees converted to Christianity, and what 
missionaries they would make to unconverted peoples ! 

Not far away was the pretentious house of a man who 
is said to be so rich that he stands in the relation to the 
banks of India that the Bank of England does to the 
money matters of Great Britain. He is worth, it is re- 
ported, fully a hundred millions of dollars, the accumu- 
lations of several generations, to which he has added that 
of his own shrewd dealings in the banking business. 

Many of the houses in this city are very fine, accord- 
ing to the notions and needs of Eastern architecture; 
much beautiful carving in wood and casting in bronze 
adorn the doors and fronts of the costly mansions. The 
temples here are also very rich, one almost opposite the 
banker's house being especially so, as it is the peculiar 
care of this man of rupees. 

A city of such wealth and pilgrimage offers to its peo- 
ple special advantages, so that in their |)hysique they 



78 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

show good living, being the tallest, plumpest lot of Hin- 
dus I have yet seen, their food seeming to have given 
them better growth. They eat no meat at all. The wor- 
ship of Mahadeo, a most foul, disgusting superstition, 
and of grossest impulses, is the prominent idolatry here. 
One cannot tell of the emblems and practices. If Paul 
saw at Athens as gross worship as one can see in such 
a sacred city of India as this it is no wonder his spirit 
was stirred within him. Dr. Scott and his vigorous 
wife are deeply moved at the situation, and the Church 
will expect to learn grand results from their hard work 
here. He is popular among these same sleek, fat Hin- 
dus, but the victories of Christ will be likely to chill 
their regard for him. 

In the afternoon we drove six miles from Muttra to 
Brindaban, another holy city, not now so lively as the 
former one, but to be especially a center of interest at 
the March mela. Then pilgrims by the ten thousands 
from all parts of India will be here, so religious are 
this people. A railroad spur by that time is to reach 
from Muttra to Brindaban, nnd crowds will avail them- 
selves of this mode of transit, even though it is offered 
them by their Anglo-Saxon conquerors. The way the 
people of India ride on the cars since their pundits have 
found that the principles of steam locomotion were fore- 
shadowed in the Vedas is most surprising. Every train 
is crowded, and you seldom see a train of less than a 
dozen or fifteen cars. In these the high castes, middle 
castes, low castes, and even outcasts and women ride. 
The cars in India are a leveler and civil izer as well as a 
convenience. 

All along the drive from Muttra to Brindaban were 
temples, shrines, and the palaces of the rich, who come 
here a part of the year for religious purposes, as Ameri- 



IN AND ABO UT MUTTRA. 79 

cans go to the mountains and sea-shore for recreation. 
The grounds and gardens about some of them were 
elegant, but in most cases showed neglect and that 
touch of indolence and decay which is so indicative of 
tropical places. A jungle lay oif from one side of the 
way that is a kind of boar-park in which the British 
officers enjoy the classical sport of " pig-sticking." 

Brindaban is named from a sacred plant which grows 
about here, the " brinda," an obscure weed, I found, 
when they showed it to me, of the labiatm group. 
Odd, is it not, that human beings, of the noble Aryan 
race, too, can be found to worship a little plant like 
that ? Man, when he is started wrong, can go that way 
very far. 

In the outskirts of this city we came to a new temple 
in course of construction. It is a thing of wonder to 
all observers, owing to its costliness and its proof of 
the activity of Brabmanism. If changes are going on 
in India looking toward the decay of idolatry this and 
other things show that it yet has much aggressive vi- 
tality. This temple, like most of them in the East, 
consists of a great court, at one side of which is the 
real fane, with many accessory buildings adjacent. The 
principal stone used is red sandstone, or rather pink- 
ish, of which vast quarries are found in this part of 
India. The temples, forts, and palaces, in all the 
great cities about here, are built of this beautiful stone. 
Even as far north as Delhi the same stone is used, the 
wonderful Khutab Minar being made of it. It is fine- 
grained, firm, enduring, yet easily worked from its 
evenly stratified structure. Much white marble was 
also used, and it is costly, a block two by four feet 
from Guzerat costing five hundred rupees. Out of such 
a block they were fashioning the form of Krishna, 



80 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA TSIA. 

which they were to set up as the god of their worship. 
AVas I a heretic, that I could not see the reasonableness 
of their making a god themselves out of stone, and 
then worshiping it ? Krishna was to be set up in this 
temple in three shapes: first, when he was a child; sec- 
ond, when grown to manhood; and third, in another 
form. Nearest to these images was being made a court 
or room for persons of rank and women, while further 
away the less choice public must be satisfied with a 
remoter distance from the god. The marble-work of 
columns, screens, panels, and the like, was being inlaid 
with precious stones, these being found to be, as they 
showed them to us, carnelians, agates, lapis lazuli, 
green flint, malachite, and the really costly turquois. 
They also were using shells, the tints made by these be- 
ing most delicate in the white marble. This inlajdng 
was much more coarsely done than some I saw at Delhi, 
the art seeming to have been at its height at the time 
of the Mogul emperors. The pieces set into the marble 
are stuck fast by a fine kind of cement. One favorite 
mode of inlaying for coarser work is to put black mar- 
ble into white. I have seen this in many other places 
as well as here. 

This temple is designed for a kind of eleemosynary 
institution as well as for worship. Back of the main 
temple are long corridors of rooms and spaces in which 
food offered at the shrines will be given out to beggars. 
This provision, where there is so much poverty and 
extreme want as in India, would be most valuable if 
those needing it could get its benefit, but such as 
mostly profit by it are the lazy priests, fakirs, and 
devotees, who might better be at work to support 
themselves. There were rooms for women to live in on 
one side of the court. A busy mass of workmen were 



IN AND ABOUT MUTTRA. 81 

toiling here and there, some squaring the big blocks 
of sandstone, others deftly fashioning the marble-work, 
others inlaying, and a few, the sculptors, at work on 
the images. All were eager to show us about and an- 
swer the questions put to them. The chief architect 
showed and explained the plan to us, and could speak 
good English, having been educated in one of the gov- 
ernment colleges. They do not build lofty structures 
in the East, like our churches and cathedrals, but like 
this one of two stories or platforms, with an uplift 
above those two. The cost of this magnificent pile is 
to be about thirty lacs of rupees, or a million dollars, 
and is borne by the rajah of the native State of Jey- 
pore. He taxes his subjects mercilessly to raise the 
money for such a purpose. 

From the temple yet building we went to the "Seth " 
temple, with vaster court area than the new one, and 
were permitted to go into only one part, the holiest 
place being inaccessible to such as we were. Fat priests 
sat reading Hindu books, with a pupil or two in front 
of them, or they lay under the perches stretched on 
mats to doze away existence. In this temple it is re- 
ported that eight thousand widows and other women 
live, compelled, those with me said, to pander to the 
vices of the throngs of priests and fakirs in the temple 
and about it. Most of these women were in the parts 
of the temple that we were not permitted to visit, 
though we saw a few of them, and these were veritable 
hags. We stopped to talk with a group of priests and 
pupils, to find that one of the young men could speak 
English, as he had been a student in one of the govern- 
ment colleges, and ^vas purposing to return. The gates 
leading to this temple were huge and finely carved with 
figures of Yishnu, and also the Hindu triad. 
6 



82 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA TSIA. 

Not far away was the well-known Govind Deva, a 
temple shaped like the cathedrals of Europe, built of 
the splendid red sandstone, and now falling into decay. 
How it came to be thus built is not known, but the sur- 
mise is that some European architect a century or two 
ago was commissioned to ]3ut up a temple, and so gave 
it the architectural cast of a Christian church. The 
nave, transepts, corridors, choir, and all the traditional 
parts of a cathedral are here. After seeing the temples 
built in Eastern style this one seemed very strange. 
During a Mohammedan conquest it was partly destroyed 
and then restored. Some most elaborate stone-carving 
is done, both inside and outside. Dr. Scott is calcu- 
lating on using it some time as a Methodist church, 
and even had us suggest the place in its vast nave 
where the pulpit ought to be set ! After all, stranger 
things than this have occurred in the conquest of the 
cross. Among the oth(a' temples visited in this holy 
city of the Hindus was that of Beliari Lull, all lined 
inside with costly marble. This man now lives at Luck- 
now, but his temple is kept in tolerable condition. On 
its top are almost as many figures cut in marble as on 
the roof of the Milan cathedral. About it are also 
huge lions carved in stone, and twisted columns of ex- 
quisite symmetry. The richness of some Indian stone- 
work is very great, if the taste is not along the approved 
lines of Western art. 

The past season, when at the mela the multiplied 
thousands were here, our missionaries, both men and 
women, were on hand also, preaching Christ and his gifts 
to those religious devotees. The good done by such a 
course at such a time cannot be known, and is not al- 
ways apparent, though in some instances men who have 
heard the missionaries at those places have come to 



m AND ABOUT MUTTRA. 83 

them later to learn more or to receive baptism, while 
in other cases many have professed conversion and 
been baptized at the mela itself. Little opposition 
is made to such procedure by the Brahraans, though 
the strong arm of British lavr no doubt compels a salu- 
tary respect. Dr. Scott was preparing for a much more 
pretentious time at the coming season, and visited a 
rich native who had some buildings to rent, to secure 
them for himself and helpers against the ingathering 
in March. What a sight for a raw American to see, 
and how I should like to be that man ! 



84 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 



LETTER XI. 

AT AGRA. 

I KNEW that three fine things awaited me at Agra: 
the promising mission work, the fort, and the wonderful 
Taj. The last was one of the few sights that out of the 
many T was to view going around the world I had greatly 
longed to see. Getting into the city at midnight from 
Muttra, Professor Foote and I went to the dak bunga- 
low, not calling at Rev. Mr. Clancy's till after our chota 
hazari. It was too late for the delightful rides fre- 
quently offered me in the fresh, cool morning, but we 
were able to look over the mission property, which, as 
at Muttra, has made most commendable advance in the 
short time the place has been occupied by us. I think 
our mission has been established but a year and a half 
at this point. A broad plot of ground has been se- 
cured, on which was already a fine large building put 
up by some Euroj^ean, that affords ample room for both 
the missionary and the representatives of the Woman's 
Foreign Missionary Society. On one part Mr. Clancy has 
a church that will seat about five hundred people, nearly 
done, built of brick taken from the old city wall, where 
they were put by Akbar, and are doubtless three hundred 
years old. In another part a building for the use of 
the native girls who come to the city for attendance on 
the large government medical college is going up. Our 
mission schools are sending many finely educated young 
women here for a medical course, that after that they 



AT AGBA. 85 

may do noble service for God, the Church, and their 
afflicted sisters of India. Among the workmen at both 
the church and women's building were many women, 
carrying mortar and bricks high up the ladders to the 
walls. I saw the same thing at Vienna. Christian 
Austria is thus, in the work of women, not a whit 
ahead of heathen India. But here, at least, it is a 
mercy to these poverty-smitten people to give the 
women a chance to earn a few pice a week to keep soul 
and body together. At the other building children as 
well as women were at work, boys not more than seven 
or eight years of age carrying baskets of dirt away like 
the older ones. In the East, when excavations are 
made, no carts or wheelbarrows are used, but workmen 
— women and boys and girls as well as men — carry the 
dirt away in baskets on their heads. I saw this done 
at road-building in Palestine and Egypt, as well as at 
all excavations in India; but in this, again. Christian 
Europe is not ahead of heathen India, for the same kind 
of work was done in the same way at the excavations 
in Pompeii. At the dirt-carrying in Agra the over- 
seer stood with a bag of cowry shells, a hundred of them 
worth about an American cent, being used there as cur- 
rency among the poor people and shop-keepers, and as 
each woman or child had carried off a basket of dirt 
and returned for another he gave to him a shell or 
two, making in this way a constant incentive to rapid 
transit. They said as much work could be obtained 
from the gang in half a day through this device as in a 
whole day without it. I noticed that each child would 
carry about three or four quarts of dirt at a time, while 
the women would bear away about a peck. There be- 
ing a large number at work, they looked like a row of 
ants coming and going. 



86 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

The fort is an immense thing and a fitting monu- 
mental relic of the Mohammedan occupation. They say 
it is a mile and a half around it, and in the times of 
poor artillery and less scientific modes of military at- 
tack it must have been well-nigh impregnable. It was 
one of the few places away from the sea-coast that dur- 
ing the terrible Sepoy rebellion was successfully held 
by the British. We entered a huge gate-way across a 
deep moat to find red sandstone walls sixty feet or so 
in height, here and there mounted with some anti- 
quated cannon, and used only to be preserved. The 
British soldiery occupy it now as a kind of arsenal, and 
into some parts of the spacious inclosure they do not allow 
visitors to go. In Akbar's time it was more than a fort, 
since it inclosed his palace, judgment-hall, mosque, and 
other royal needs, as well as the barracks and fortress 
for his armies. The judgment-hall is now w^alled up 
where formerly it was open, the roof having been sus- 
tained by strong columns. The portico, which the em- 
peror occupied to execute judgment, is yet open; and they 
showed us the wide black marble slab on which he used 
to sit during those fatal hours. Two immense wooden 
doors, composed of the sweet-smelling sandal-wood, are 
carefully preserved, having been captured at Somnath 
by Lord Ellenborough in his Afghan campaign, and 
brought here for preservation. They are wonderful 
specimens of the work that Eastern despots used to have 
done, as they had at their command almost limitless 
resources of wealth and work. They are richly carved 
and inlaid, while on one panel are three metal bosses, 
said once to have been on the shield of an Afghan em- 
peror. 

The palace proper is quadrangular, like most of those 
Eastern buildings, inclosing a court laid out in fine gar- 



AT AGBA. 87 

dens, walks, groves, and shady nooks. Much of it all 
is dilapidated, yet enough remaining to attest the mag- 
nificence of this once royal residence. Here were sepa- 
rate sections for the different kinds of wives, one for the 
Hindu wives, one for the Mohammedan, one for the 
Persian, and so on. It is claimed that he also had one 
European wife. Near by is the deep well, now mostly 
walled in, where he used to drown his bad-tempered 
or faithless spouses. What tales all this old palace could 
tell! A parchesi board lies in a small court that is forty 
feet across, composed of party-colored marbles, on which 
the game was played, with beautiful girls to run hither 
and thither in place of the ivory pieces when the game 
was played by hand. It is now damp and moss-grown 
from disuse. Below were wide spaces among arches, 
columns, and corners, where the royal wives were said 
to have played hide and seek with merry laughter and 
shout, clad only in Eve's habiliments before the fall. 
Far down we entered the beginnings of a passage 
that was said to lead under the river tc the Taj, and a 
second one to Secundra, five miles away, where is the 
mausoleum of the renowned Akbar. Doubtless these 
are mere rumors that have no truth in them, but there 
is little knowing what those old despots would take a 
notion to have done when they had so much wealth 
and labor at their disposal. Among the most artistic 
things seen was the canopy over one of the royal seats, 
a single piece of marble eight feet in diameter, most 
exquisitely carved and inlaid. The Palace of Glass 
is a batli of fiije proportions, about the walls of which 
are thousands of little mirrors set at all angles, each mirror 
being about as large as a silver dollar. Nothing made 
me think of the Arabian Nights as much as this room. 
The fountains in it, the bubbling water, the little 



88 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

cascade, all suggested the wondrous stories of that 
marvelous collection. 

For the emperor's worship there was the Pearl 
Mosque, and a pearl it is. Like the one in the old fort 
in Delhi, it is small, but the perfection of Saracenic art. 
It stands on a platform of red sandstone, and within 
has none of the tawdry show of worship to be found in 
some of the Christian sanctuaries, but a marble tes- 
selated floor marking a spot where the devotee can 
kneel for prayer with his face turned toward Mecca. 
Pity it is that those Moslems in the East have so di- 
vorced worship and morality. The terrible climate of 
India is touching every thing in and about this old fort ; 
worn sandstone and marble, broken columns and door- 
ways, moss-covered walls and crumbling brick-work, all 
show the sure and swift decay. 

The Taj is a mile out of the city and immediately on 
the banks of the Jumna. About it lie scattered other 
tombs and mausoleums, for the Taj is a tomb itself, 
built by the great Shah Jehan over the remains of his 
dearly loved wife. If it is barren and suggestive of 
desolation and death about the Taj, one enters a true 
Eastern paradise when he approaches the building, for 
a large space is walled off for fine gardens, walks, and 
fountains, through which wall you enter the gardens by 
a magnificent gate-way of sandstone and of black and 
white marble, in some instances inlaid in quaint, beauti- 
ful designs and texts from the Koran. The govern- 
ment protects all this elegance of gate-way, walls, gar- 
dens, and tombs, so that they shall not fall into decay 
nor be despoiled by vandal hands. 

As you stand at the gate looking in, the Taj is seen 
three or four hundred yards away, white and still, 
through a perspective of trees that reach out their 



AT AGE A. 89 

green leaves and branches over the walks and fount- 
ains. The gardens and groves cover many acres inside 
the walls, and serve actually as a botanical place, the 
well-posted Scotchman in general charge being eager to 
get some American ferns to add to the fine lot of 
Asiatic ones he already possessed. Trees and ferns I 
could see in other countries and in other parts of India, 
but there is only one Taj in the world, so I urged for- 
ward to that. As w^e came near I saw the building 
stood fronting us as we approached from the south, and 
was on a white marble platform three or four hundred 
yards long and two hundred wide, with a height of 
about twenty feet. In the center of this platform stands 
the Taj. At each end, on a slightly lower plane than 
the Taj, is a mosque where the sad emperor could wor- 
ship as he came to the tomb of his departed love, the 
one at the west end being used for this purpose, while 
that at the east end was put up, they said, as a com- 
panion-piece to complete the artistic effect. The tall 
minarets, that are indescribably graceful in their slim, 
straight beauty, rise at proper distances from the Taj 
and the two mosques. They are almost always a copy 
of the great Khutab Minar near Delhi. 

As we came upon the platform a genteel guide ap- 
proached offering to show us about, but that was not nec- 
essary for Professor Foote and me as long as we had in 
Mr. Clancy one who had been there so many times. My 
first impressions of this building were to be overwhelm- 
ing, I supposed, and when I was not so overwhelmed I 
was disappointed. Who would not expect to be pro- 
foundly moved at its presence after reading Dr. Will- 
iam Butler's fine description and that of Bayard Tay- 
lor ? But there I was in the presence of the charmer, 
and it seemed only a fine structure of white marble. 



90 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

Oriental in outline and make, but not marvelous at all. 
Was it that I was sated by the vast sight-seeing of the 
months since I had left Jiome, or was I too tired that 
day, or was the Taj a thing too highly extolled ? We 
went into it, about it, down into the crypt, off to the 
ends of the platform, entered the mosques, and came 
out of them to look again, so as to give the building 
all the chances possible to captivate; yet even under the 
enthusiasm of Mr. Clancy added to all the rest I did 
not become enthusiastic. A similar lack affected Pro- 
fessor Foote. 

Inside, on a level with the platform, is the large open 
space under the dome, which rises a hundred feet or 
•more above you. Here, within a railed space, is a du- 
plicate of the tombs of the beautiful Noor Jehan and 
her royal husband side by side, as they really are in the 
crypt below. Every word or noise under the great 
dome is sent back in an echo that is far the finest I have 
ever heard, even after the famous ones of Naples and 
the Yosemite. A second story forms passages with the 
elegant fret-work that is the delight of all travelers, 
yet which is more substantial by far than I had sup- 
posed, the marble from which the tracery is cut being 
two or three inches thick and far too substantial to 
suggest floating away. Much of it is inlaid with pre- 
cious stones, carnelians and agates seeming to predomi- 
nate. Every-where the white marble is also inlaid in 
black marble with texts from the Koran, until it is 
claimed that the whole book is thus preserved. The 
real tombs of the empress and of Akbar below were 
very richly inlaid ; the rose at the head of the former 
was said to have had in its center a fine diamond, and 
one could see where it had been picked out by some 
thief. In saveral places the inlaying was most beauti- 



AT AGBA. 91 

fill and costly. After two or three hours we went 
away, still not greatly charmed, but with a plan to come 
in the evening after the moon was up and see it by that 
witching light. 

We waited until the moon, just at the full, most 
fortunately, was an hour high, and then found our way 
again to the grounds of the Taj. It was smoky, so that 
a weird dimness partially hid it as we approached, but 
as we passed through the gate-way along the avenues 
of trees I saw it was with a different effect from the 
morning. Little sound save the distant howl of a few^ 
jackals and dogs disturbed the quiet; the men and boys 
at work about the gardens in the day were all gone, and 
no one, save the sleepy guards, the silent guides, and a 
visitor or two like us, was to be seen. Mr. Clancy said 
the impression of a bubble ready to float in the air was 
created in his mind by the rounded dome, but I could 
not catch such a feeling. The moon was at just the 
height to throw a shadow most richly on the west side 
of the white Taj the same time that the east side glit- 
tered with a soft, pearly radiance in the full light of 
that orb. We never know the light of the sun or 
moon in America as they do in India. The nearest the 
moon's light comes in America to look as it did that 
night is when its full rays glow upon the winter 
snow. The light and shade about minarets, the dome, 
the corners, and recesses, added greatly to our ability 
to comprehend the structure and to take its effects into 
our minds. Again we went inside to listen to the echo. 
The space seems to have a certain key-note, so that 
words spoken at a particular tone and some of the 
strains of singing filled it and prolonged the echo as 
other words and tones did not. The eclio — such is the 
shape and size of the dome — is sweet and soft and ex- 



92 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

ceedingly musical. It floats about the space, at first 
almost as loud as the originating sound, and gradually 
grows less and less, but so slowly as to linger much 
longer than you would expect it to do. The later re- 
frains become so distant and sweet that they seem to be 
not of the earth, but of the far-away heaven. We 
wondered if Akbar did not come there at night, and, as 
we did, seem to hold converse with heavenly visitants, 
his visitant, of course, the one for whom his passion was 
so great. We sang familiar hymns, to listen to the 
strains of Christian song come back from the dome 
where the Moslem Akbar would have counted it most 
despicable to have such Christian sounds occur or such 
Christian infidels stand. 

By this time the Taj began to get me into its power. 
I was perfectly willing to be captivated if it had the 
power to do so, and thus did not struggle against it, 
nor would I seek captivation by straining after it. 
Then we went out and around the j^latform, getting 
views from every side. It was quiet, rich, solemn, 
and so unearthly as to seem almost ghostly ; no one 
wanted to talk loudly, and even the heavy footsteps 
of our thick shoes seemed out of place. A man and 
woman. Western people of some nation, were wan- 
dering about the same as we were doing. Mr. Clancy 
said he had an impression, as he walked from it, 
that it would all vanish as the airy structure of a 
dream, but I did not feel so. He says that he is 
more and more impressed with its unique beauty every 
time he visits it. The cry of some water-birds a few 
hundred yards down the river was a pleasant break to 
the impressions that came to me, for I was getting 
under the spell more and more. The glitter of the 
golden star and crescent above the dome was in fine 



AT AGBA. . 93 

contrast with the subdued pearly gleam of the spotless 
marble below. 

Then we went off the platform among the trees of 
the garden to get views from that vantage ground. We 
would so stand that the upper part only could be seen, 
the dome and towers and minarets, while all below was 
hidden by the trees, but still it did not seem to float, 
though it greatly enhanced the beauty, for the white 
above flooded with moonlight was in charming contrast 
with the vivid green below. The white seemed more 
pearly than before, the dim distance heightening that 
effect. The minarets, that had seemed taller in the 
moonlight than in the day-time, when seen from among 
the trees seemed even more graceful than before, and 
disconnected through the green leaves they at least ap- 
peared to me as though they might float away. We 
tried the view from twenty points of outlook, now with 
the whole dome in sight and the minarets hidden ; then 
with the dome hidden and the minarets in sight ; then 
only small sections of each dome and minarets seen 
through a space as a green-encircled perspective. The 
thick mango-trees and others thus aided us in an end- 
less series of views, each different from the others, and 
each new one presenting new phases of beauty and en- 
chantment. Finally, seeking the flagged walk leading 
back to the great gate-way, we walked slowly backward 
to see the changing aspects thus offered. Once the 
pointed graceful tamarisks shot up into the white walls 
of the Taj like great inlaid columns of green marble ; 
then as we receded the dome and towers and minarets 
seemed indeed to rise gradually, more and more the 
farther we went back, till at last the dome and all did 
seem to float out on the light air, and the full impres- 
sion of that enchantment came to me. I gave one long 



94 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA TSIA. 

gaze to photograph it on my memory, and turned away 
saying that should be my last look, and hurried toward 
the gate-way. I went thirty feet, it may be, clinging to 
my purpose, when the wonderful thing overcame that 
purpose to get away — I could but turn and take one 
more look, as the departing lover might turn and take 
one more look on the one he is leaving; but once 
turned I gazed again and again, now with my face di- 
rectly toward the Taj, now over my shoulder, till I 
stood on the raised platform leading out of the gate. 
Then I knew I must take a last look. In the haze and 
distance it had grown dimmer and dimmer, yet it was 
able to be distinguished, the dome, walls, minarets ; and 
all these were also distinctly shadowed in the still water 
in the tanks down the wide avenue leading from the 
gate-way to the Taj. Gazing hard so as never to for- 
get its vision, I finally turned, passed through the gate- 
way to the carriage, and rode away with a little feel- 
ing that it was all a dream. O, the beautiful, wonder- 
ful Taj ! 



NANAK, THE PUNJAB REFORMER. 95 



LETTER XII. 

NANAK, THE PUNJAB REFORMER. 

India is a hot-bed of religions. Hinduism supplanted 
an extensive system of early practices among the Tu- 
ranian aborigines, fragments of which remnin to this 
time in tree-worship, devil-worship, and the like. Then 
the elaborate Hindu religion, after holding sway here for 
two thousand years, was compelled to meet in life- 
and-death struggle with Mohammedanism, the latter 
being propagated, not only by the sword, but by preach- 
ers, missionaries, and by all those influences so likely to 
be urged by conquerors. Last of all has come Christian- 
ity, for the first time meeting these great systems fairly, 
as it has met and overcome other great religious sys- 
tems. It follows that such religious ferment as must 
have always been going on here would produce relig- 
ious fanatics, teachers, and leaders. Buddha, one of 
the greatest figures in the world's history, arose as a re- 
former. Another, less known, and whose influence, not 
so great as that of Buddha, has yet been very impor- 
tant in modern times, was Nanak. He was born near 
Lahore, in the Punjab, in 1469, and died in 1539. His 
effort along humanitarian lines was to combine the 
best from the Hindu and Mohammedan religions, rec- 
oncile these two antagonistic races, and form out of 
their worthy beliefs a wholesome system that should be 
better for both. To attain this he accepted the mis- 
sion and claims of the Arabian prophet, and at the same 



96 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

time the reputed incarnations of Vishnu. In the very 
age when Luther and Calvin and Zwinglius were seeking 
to change the trend of the Christian Church from bad 
to better the Indian reformer was struggling with a 
similai" problem in India. The Indian reformer's prob- 
lem met with poorer success than that of his contem- 
poraries in Europe, and after some variations of fort- 
une through the generations the project degenerated 
into a warlike movement. 

Nanak seems to have begun his public life by becom- 
ing an ascetic, like all religious teachers among the In- 
dians, but, gradually becoming dissatisfied with the life 
and teachings of those about him, he struck out a new 
path. In the Indian speech an exalted teacher is a guru, 
and such he became, and is so called by his followers. 
His teachings during his life-time, while forming a large 
share of the sacred books of the Sikhs, called Granth, 
have had much added to them by later gurus, of whom, 
including Nanak, they reckon ten. After four of these 
gurus' time, whose teachings, calculated to lead to 
purer lives and more nearly correct beliefs, had attracted 
a large following, the sect became troublesome to the 
rulers of the Punjab as partisans and even as rebels. 
The city of Amritsar was selected by the fifth guru 
as the sacred one of the Sikhs, and it is still considered 
such by them, though representatives and teachers of 
this religion are to be found over all the country. 

The Granth, now accessible to English readers through 
a good translation, is the best witness to the tenets of 
the reformer and the system since grown from them. 
It is probable that his teachings were not committed to 
writing at first, though how they were preserved is un- 
certain; but after three or four generations they and the 
additions were written out, and are now treated with 



NANAK, THE PUNJAB REFORMER. 97 

more than reveience, being actually worshiped system- 
atically at Amritsar. At that city, in the middle of a 
wide tank of water, stands a beautiful white marble tem- 
ple, under the golden dome of which is the Granth spread 
out on a silver stand richly adorned, where a continu- 
ous stream of worshipers is coming and going. Musi- 
cians chant the praises of this worshiped book, priests 
wait on its altar as on the altar of a god. At the close 
of a day's services the tired book is carried to a house 
near by, where on a rich soft bed it is supposed to sleep 
and recuperate for another day of toil. The book be- 
came thus sacred owing to the course of the tenth and 
last guru, Govind, who, instead of nominating his 
successor, as the gurus did before him, declared the 
Granth as the form of the guru, and that an}^ Sikh wanting 
to confer with the guru would find him embodied in 
the book. The Sikhs consider the guru their incarnated 
mediator between Hari, the Great God, and themselves, 
in this being like the adherents of almost every great 
religion, dimly reaching out into the darkness after the 
Desire of all nations. 

Of course the purpose of Nanak to combine the 
two faiths failed. There are so many things in them 
which are utterly antagonistic that it could be sup- 
posed it might have been seen from the beginning. 
Indeed, Govind, the last guru, repudiated both Hindu 
and Mohammedan teachings in many respects, and him- 
self taught that God is not to be found save in humil- 
ity and sincerity. The One God was to be served, 
superstitions were to be abandoned, pure morals kept. 
Still, in many respects the reformers, from IsTanak to 
Govind, were not wholly able to emancipate themselves 
from the philosophy and tenets surrounding them. 
Starting at first as a peaceful, reforming faith, it be- 
7 



98 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

came by the teachings of the last guru a faith of the 
sword, to be propagated by that the same as Islam. 
The caste system so dreadful in the Hindu cult, while 
declaimed against by Nanak, continued to be tolerated, 
and finally has as rigid lines dividing its two classes 
now, householders and mendicants, as the Hindu beliefs. 
If in the start Nanak, as claimed, urged the brother- 
hood of man, there came need in the early history of 
the Sikhs that the reformation itself, in this respect, 
should be reformed. While having a wife and two 
sons, he favored ascetic practices by his own life and 
teachings, though he put a nobler construction on the 
family life than many other Indian reformers. He 
placed great stress upon another Hindu religious cus- 
tom, that of repeating the name of a god, or muttering. 
The name of the Great God, Hari, is thus to be uttered 
continuously, by which course many and important 
blessings would come to the devotee. 

Nor was Nanak more fortunate in his dealings with 
the theory of transmigration, that awful shadow hang- 
ing over all Hindu life and practice. The old belief 
that many hundred thousands of these changes must 
take place before man was perfected for heaven was 
accepted by the Sikhs. Nanak's scheme, while remotely 
teaching theism, can also easily be accused of being 
pantheistic, since mankind and all material things are 
but the forms of Hari. The whole creation, according 
to some of his teachings, is but a self-evolving of God. 
Still, in this faith, as in many of the Indian books, glar- 
ing contradictions are easily to be found. In Nanak's 
system it would naturally follow that contradictions in 
respect to this question should occur, since Mohammed- 
anism teaches a pure theism and Hinduism extreme 
pantheism. 



NANAK, THE PUNJAB REFORMER. 99 

The outcome of Nanak's proposed reform is doubtless 
much different from what the reformer hoped. There 
has been no fusion of the two old faiths. Instead of 
peaceful, contemplative religious practices the Sikhs 
became vindictive warriors. After Govind's death, who, 
by his teachings and by the military organization of 
the Sikhs, had prepared them for their new destiny, they 
sought independent existence, fought with one and an- 
other of the rulers of the Punjab, till, on the decay of 
the Mogul Empire, they so succeeded in their purpose 
of autonomy that by 1764 their organization was per- 
fected, their commonwealth, consisting of twelve States, 
made up. Most of these Sikhs were of the Jat race, 
supposed to be distinct from Hindus and Mohammed- 
ans, a strong, tall, brave people. They issued at this 
time their own coin, and took other steps as a free 
State. At the close of the last century, and the first 
forty years of this, they had an able, ambitious leader 
in the famous Runjeet Singh, who, appealing to arms, 
gradually subdued neighboring chiefs with his " Lions 
of the Punjab," and, pushing his successful armies, 
drilled by European officers to great efficiency, into 
Afghanistan, conquered Cashmere and Peshawur. He 
obtained from an Afghan king the famous diamond 
Kohinoor, which later came into possession of the Brit- 
ish crown. At his death the Sikh power, the military 
product of the peaceful Nanak's teachings, controlled 
twenty millions of people. In ten years from that time 
it had been utterly shattered by bloody contact with the 
British power in two wars, and all the Punjab was an- 
nexed to the English dominion. Every good Sikh hopes 
for the time when they shall return to power in greater 
splendor than ever before. But England made good use 
of the brave Sikhs, for many of them were soon incor- 



100 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

porated into the native contingent, and when the mu- 
tiny arose in- 1857 they generally remained loyal to the 
British, doing some noble lighting before Delhi and 
elsewhere, by which they greatly aided in establishing 
British supremacy in India. They could the more 
readily remain true in such a struggle when Hindu 
and Mohammedan were united against the British, since 
their own existence as a nation began by repudiating 
the faith of both those peoples. 

Nanak's religious followers are now variously esti- 
mated to number from half a million to three times that 
number. While holding many Hindu and Mohammedan 
beliefs and customs, they still appear to come nearer to 
Christianity, in the doctrine of God, if not in personal 
purity, than either. Their teachers are earnestly listened 
to by many people, as at melas and other gatherings they 
appear as public instructors. In our mission at Morad- 
abad and about there our missionaries have come in 
contact with many Sikhs, one of whom, an old teacher, 
earnestly and diligently seeking more light, finally, in 
hearing of Christ and Christianity, heartily accepted 
the truth. Many of the same sect, nominally, at least, 
accepted our faith, when, in 1868, a deep spiritual work 
passed over them, since which time numbers from among 
them have become preachers, exhorters, teachers, and 
successful members of our native churches. Nanak 
himself, were he now living, might become a grand 
preacher in the Methodist Church.. 



A DAY AMONG INDIA 'S FA UPERS. 101 



LETTER XTII. 

A DAY AMONG INDIA'S PAUPERS. 

It was the 21st of December at Cawnpore. For fif- 
teen years it has been the custom at this place to raise a 
sum of money in the English-speaking Methodist church 
to buy presents for a crowd of mendicants, the things 
given being clothing, flour, salt, and the like. It is done 
for the holiday season as a Christmas gift. This year 
about seventy-five dollars had been raised. Every Sun- 
day during the year a couple of Englishmen, members 
of this church, the Foy Brothers, in important business 
here, have such native poor as will do so come to their 
bungalow, where they preach to them, both these men 
being local preachers. To each of these natives they 
give a j)ice, half a cent, every Sunday. The people who 
listen to that Sunday teaching and preaching are the ones 
to whom the Christmas presents are given. The distri- 
bution took place under wide-spreading trees in front 
of the home or bungalow of the Foy Brothers. There 
were assembled when I reached the place two hundred or 
more natives, with some American missionaries and other 
Western people, besides several employees and police of 
the bungalow. A Bible and hymn-books were brought 
out, one of the Foys read from the first chapter of 
Matthew of Christ's birth, a hymn or two were sung, 
and prayer offered by the native ^pastor. Two or three 
of the visitors spoke to the motley crowd in the vernac- 
ular, to whom they listened well for heathen beggars. 



102 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

During this time I had a chance to look at them. They 
were the most miserable mass of humanity I have ever 
seen. Seated on the ground, each one only partially 
covered with ragged, dirty cotton cloth, they had evi- 
dences of many kinds of disease. Such evidences could 
the more easily be seen for their arms, legs, heads, and 
brown bodies were mostly naked, though it was winter 
season. Many were lepers, whom they permit to asso- 
ciate with every body in India, their fingers and toes 
gone, their noses or ears eaten off, while others had 
great white blotches where on their skin the awful dis- 
ease had begun its work. The sores of leprosy are 
dryer than I had supposed, so dry that they usually 
do not have to be bandaged. Others not touched with 
the fatal leprosy were blind, or lame, or broken in 
health, or old; some with skin diseases, or warped out 
of shape by rheumatism, or cripples from their birth. 
Possibly an American city like New York could furnish 
such a revolting mass of beggars, but I doubt it. One 
of the blind men had been taught to read with raised 
letters, and had his book with him, though it possibly 
was owned by the Christian mission. 

Not all the mass that sat there in the tropical sun that 
day belonged to the hundred or so that gathered to hear 
Sunday preaching, and as these were all certain to get 
some present the others constantly sought to cross the 
dividing-line between the two classes and mingle with 
the elect ones. It was interesting to watch them hitch 
along the ground or suddenly try to dart across the 
space when the backs of the Foy watchmen were turned. 
As the religious services closed the beggars were con- 
ducted by these attendants and police in twos and threes 
to the place where the piles of clothing and food were 
awaiting distribution. During this movement I was 



A DAT AMONG INDIA 'S PA UPERS. 103 

able to see better than while they were sitting the 
dreadful suffering of some of these people ; and as I had 
just come from the scene of the bloody Cawnpore mas- 
sacre during the Sepoy rebellion the two combined to 
break vaj heart. These little groups were so pathetic ! 
An old couple, gray and shriveled, tottered along side 
by side, each sustaining the other; one would go hanging 
heavily on another's shoulder ; a blind woman was led 
away by her old husband; two blind young men were 
directed by an old woman, presumably their mother, 
while another blind one, a stalwart young man, was di- 
rected by a ten-year-old girl holding one end of a stick 
while he clung to the other end. Men with their fingers 
eaten off by the leprosy would come holding up the 
stumps to awaken pity ; others hobble along with their 
toes gone. A woman whose lips and mouth were cov- 
ered with a huge cancerous growth came and stood 
mutely waiting for her dole, her great black eyes being 
the most beautiful I ever saw, soft, lustrous, and gen- 
tle as a deer's. One woman could not walk, her limbs 
being so drawn out of shape, but sitting on the ground 
she went along hitch by hitch, a few inches at a 
time. Soon after her came a man moving in the same 
way, whose fingers were gone, and his feet to the instep, 
with leprosy. The photographs on my memory of that 
hour will never fade. 

The garments given out were jackets made of cotton 
puff, thick and warm, some skirts for the women, a few 
coarse chuddars, the enveloping garment for women, 
covering the body and head, and also a few thick goat's- 
hair blankets. About a hundred and fifty garments 
were given away, only one to each person. Farther on 
they had some bags of coarse flour which they gave out 
in doles of a quart or two to each, and a handful of 



104 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

coarse salt. Many of those not included in the. Sunday 
attendants received some of these things. Here they 
vociferated, crowded, and almost fought to get at 
the distributers, for the native attendants and police 
could not make them mind like the English at the 
clothing-pile. They took the flour and. salt in their 
dirty old chuddars, or garments, and reluctantly went 
away. I was anxious to see how the man whose fingers 
and feet were eaten off by leprosy, and who was hitch- 
ing along on his haunches, would carry off his flour and. 
salt. They had given the poor thing a cotton jacket, 
which he had flung over his shoulders; in the bend made 
by hitching up his legs he had an old rag that he spread 
out on the ground, into which he received the flour and 
salt. The latter he carefully gathered into a brass can 
slung under one arm, then he rolled up the flour in the 
rag and put it in its place in front of his body and went 
hitching off. Even one old fakir was there, a saintly 
old Brahman, whose six-corded string, tied over his bare 
brown shoulder, was as precious to him as the witness 
of the Spirit is to a Methodist. The old women were 
the most veritable hags I have ever seen, there being 
nothing beautiful m aged heathenism. A few Chris- 
tian women, some of them gray, were helping take 
care of the crowd, and their looks were noticeably differ- 
ent from those of their pagan sisters. I was glad that 
the Foy brothers, after twenty or thirty years of con- 
tact with these people, had warm hearts toward them, 
for after all they were men and women. But O, what 
men and women ! Heathenism's fruit ! 



ANNUAL SUNDA Y-SCHO OL GALA AT L UGKNO W. 1 05 



LETTER XIV. 

ANNUAL SUNDAY-SCHOOL GALA AT LUCKNOW. 

It is always held at the Christmas season. This year 
the English-speaking school had its picnic December 
27, the native schools theirs on December 28. Ever 
after my purpose to travel through India this winter I 
had planned to be here at these gatherings. The note 
of preparation had been heard for a long time, as they 
began to collect money in November, getting four hun- 
dred rupees, which were used in presents and prizes. 
The prizes were given for regular attendance, commit- 
ting Scripture verses, and other excellencies and attain- 
ments. The fetes are held in Wingfield Park, which 
has ample grounds, good swards, delightful drives and 
walks, where all can fully enjoy themselves. The park 
and its trees and flowers do not hint of winter as Amer- 
icans think of that season. None of the trees are leaf- 
less, but those like our deciduous ones have massive 
tops of heavy green leaves. Besides these are some 
palms, the date, fan, sago, and others, with their long 
columnar trunks if fully grown, or those just starting 
from new settings. Along the walks are early beds of 
pansies set out but two or three days, but already 
blooming, while near by are groups of rose-bushes, 
with enough blossoms to show what varieties they are 
and how great will be their magnificence when, a month 
later, they will be in full bloom. The closely clipped 
grass is kept green by irrigation, the same as all the 



106 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

plants are watered. Gigantic growth of bignonias 
climb over trellises or to the top of some old tree, the 
orange-colored blossoms just beginning to adorn their 
leafy columns with great clusters of pleasing forms. 
Morning-glories, creepers, poinsettas, and other climb- 
ers are trained in picturesque places, and send out vis- 
ions of color and beauty that tell little of icy Christmas 
seasons. Birds twitter through the trees and shrubs; 
among them the classic bulbul, with its self-assertive 
top-knot, pretty scarlet and black markings, is an at- 
tractive figure. The hum of the cricket, the lazy flight 
of a butterfly, the sun beating down so strong that I dare 
not stand in its glare save when covered with an um- 
brella, so combine to deceive my time-calculations that 
I am not having a real Christmas, but a summer picnic 
season. 

At eleven o'clock, the 27th, the children and grown 
folks were all gathered under a wide awning, where 
singing, prayer, and some words from a Wesleyan mis- 
sionary and myself were spoken; then the prizes were 
awarded, presents distributed, and a good time gener- 
ally enjoyed. Ample tables were spread at which the 
children first were served, then the grown people. In 
the meantime three elephants, with huge wooden sad- 
dles, had been brought to the grounds for our use, and 
many a boy and girl, both small and large, was quite 
willing to lose the dainty cakes, sweet-meats, and fruit 
in order to secure the coveted ride on the elephant. 
As a part of my riding around the world I ought, of 
course, to ride on an elephant, so here was my chance. 
Behold, then, Dr. B. H. Badley and myself sitting on the 
wide wooden hoiodah, facing one way, while an Amer- 
ican and an English lady sit facing the other way, hav- 
ing climbed to our places by means of a short ladder. 



ANNUAL SUNDA 7-SCHO OL GALA AT L UCKNO W. 1 07 

The elephant has crouched down at the command of his 
driver, who, sitting astride its neck, uses to enforce his 
commands a sharp, murderous-looking iron prod, and, 
as the load is completed, at a cluck from the driver, the 
huge animal begins to get on its feet. The first part 
of the rise is to its forefeet, which causes a lurch of 
every body to the rear, then getting on its hind feet 
causes another lurch forward. Once risen, the great 
beast moves off with four or six persons on his back 
as though they w^ere feathers. The motion of elephant- 
riding is apt to cause nausea, like the motion of a ship 
at sea. They allowed the " Sahib " from America the 
chance of three rides, none of which was very lengthy. 
A merry-go-round, a revolving swing, some athletic ex- 
ercises, etc., were able to keep the children interested 
till late in the afternoon. 

The really great day of the gala was the 28th, 
when the thirteen native boys' schools, represented 
by about sixteen hundred pupils, had their good 
time. Early in the morning a note from Dr. Badley to 
me informed me that I was expected to meet them at 
the native church and head the procession through 
Lucknow on the back of a big elephant. Of course I 
hurried there, and was soon, with himself and others, 
on the foremost of six elephants leading such a proces- 
sion as this world seldom sees. Five government ele- 
phants were loaded with the prize boys of the schools, 
then following was a line full half a mile long of boys 
with their teachers, each school designated by an ap- 
propriate banner; and Mr. Maxwell's printing-office was 
also represented by a hundred of its workmen and a 
fine banner. Those on the elephants carried flags of 
England and the United States. Each school had its 
native band also, the music being of various grades of 



108 A WINTER m INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

merit and many varieties of kinds. Flutes, fifes, drums, 
bugles, and others made at least a noisy demonstration. 
The people of the city flocked to the street sides to see 
us, and many came on their house-tops. By special 
favor our elephant, once a wild one in the jungles, but 
now fully obedient to the driver's word, was stopped 
that we might see the great procession as it slowly 
passed us. The boys enjoyed it, and every face was 
beaming with excitement and interest. 

In Wingfield Park the boys were seated on carpets 
under the same awning used the day before, with the 
teachers, friends, and visitors outside. A hymn, prayer, 
then singing by a chosen lot from six of the schools 
for a prize that was awarded to a group of four boys 
whose performance was highly creditable. Four much 
smaller boys stood in that great gathering, not one of 
them ten years old, and sang most sweetly, forming a 
picture, as they stood in front of their banner, such as 
is full of hope and promise to India. The prizes given 
out by Dr. Badley were silver rupees and Dr. Kidder's 
centennial medal. They were awarded those who had 
committed the Golden Texts, the selected verses, the 
topics, and the outlines of the year's lessons. Twelve 
pupils were also honored who had been present every 
Sunday. Three or four of us talked a little to the boys, 
who were enthusiastic, and, by a sweeping vote, sent 
their salaam by me to President Harrison in the United 
States. That gathering was a strange one to a new 
visitor. Such bright black eyes, such expressive brown 
faces, such endless variety of costumes ! These boys 
were mostly Hindu and Mohammedan boys, but, being 
taught in the day-schools in different parts of the city, 
and every Sunday in the Sunday-school, their lessons for 
all days are in the vernacular. Many of them are being 



ANNUAL SUNDA T-SCEO OL GALA AT L UCKNO W. 1 09 

led to Christ, and a great number believe, but owing 
to home surroundings delay in publicly confessing him. 
Dr. Badley says he has a mortuage on them all. The 
Centennial High School, Dr. Badley's immediate charge, 
has many Christian boys going through a course of 
study about equal to American college preparation, but 
beyond this the doctor is taking a fine class through 
freshman studies this year as the starting out of the 
Lucknow College that will carry students to the B. A. 
degree. Land to build such a college has been donated 
by the government, and work will soon begin on the 
building. I think such a college is demanded to con- 
serve our church interests and to hold to us the young 
men educated by us to matriculation. 

As these Hindu, Mohammedan, and Christian boys 
crowd close to each other under the awning at Wing- 
field Park you can see in them one of the most hope- 
ful promises for our work in India. Look at them. 
Their jaunty student caps by no means cover their fine- 
shaped heads, but sit lightly on the top, and are of as 
many colors as we can think of. Mostly white, but 
red, brown, green, blue, some like open lace, others 
elaborately worked with needle-work and gold or silver 
threads, they present a variety far beyond an American 
gathering of women at the season of changing millinery. 
Then the coats, vests, pants, slippers, and other parts 
of clothing almost defy description. One nawab's son, 
not in a Sunday-school, was shown us. He had a gold- 
trimmed cap with a silver tassel of large size, massive 
gold, chains and a locket about his neck, a coat of bright 
colors also gold- wrought, a green silk skirt, white 
stockings, and leather shoes. A young man wore a 
purple needle-worked cap, a brilliantly yellow coat of 
silk lined with red and edged with the same, while his 



no A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

pants were a tobacco-brown. These people seem to catch 
their colors from the brilliant plumage of the birds, the 
bright tint of their flowers, and the burning light of the 
sun as it floods the rich landscape, and then put it all 
into their adornments. This taste would appear gaudy 
under the gray skies of America, but I have not felt 
pained by it here. I^^atives put into English suits do 
not look well. Their native costumes fit them much 
better. In the mass under the awning a few of the 
pupils had their foreheads painted to show their special 
native deity, but not more than half a dozen in all the 
large numbers. It was a great thing for them to enter 
such a procession, to sit with others, and to remove their 
forehead paint. Christianity is working its way into 
Indian life. 

If they were willing to mingle in a Christian proces- 
sion, sing Christian songs, and carry Christian banners, 
they could not overstep caste lines enough to eat to- 
gether. So, on the dismissal of the crowd from the 
awning, each school divided into two or three groups, 
the Hindus by themselves, the Mohammedans the same, 
thus compelling a third group, the Christians. Each 
group gathered under some wide-spreading tree, where 
in the shade they ate their sweets. In the case of the 
Hindus men of their own caste came along to see that 
none was defiled or any mistakes made in the observ- 
ances. I Avandered out among these strange groups to 
find at every place a separate lot of candy, or sweets, as 
they call it here, having besides candy variously made 
sweetmeats, at making which the Indians excel. Two or 
three men would be dividing out these confections with 
funny little plates or basins made of leaves. So thick 
and tough are many of these native leaves that they can 
be pinned by twigs into such cups and perfectly serve 



ANNUAL SUNDA Y-SGHO OL GALA AT L UGKNO W. Ill 

their purposes. Each pupil received from a quarter to 
a half pound of these sweets, and was made as glad by 
them as the boys would be in America. But here was 
an odd thing. Almost every boy did up his sweets in 
a handkerchief, or otherwise, to carry them home to his 
parents and other members of the family. His respect 
for them would not permit him to monopolize his rich 
dainties. When I approached one group of Hindus 
and began closely to look at the confections the head- 
master of that school warned me, in tone not to be mis- 
taken, not to touch any of the food. It is impossible 
for us, with our ideas, to comprehend the restrictions 
of caste in this and other ways. At another place they 
gave me in the leaf-basket a pupil's allowance of the 
refreshments. 

The meaning to our mission of such a day is very 
great. Such displays attract attention in various ways, 
serve to lead other children to the day and Sunday 
schools, carry conviction to those who see them of the 
grand success of our Church, and have been blessed in 
many ways. Then the Hindus and Mohammedans have 
so many holidays, melas, and other gatherings that to 
give the Christian children a similar festival once in a 
while does much good. A similar gala was observed 
this year by our mission at Cawnpore. Our mission- 
aries have learned much wisdom in pushing our work, 
and in some ways they are having such success as no 
other missionaries are having. I am glad to see this 
success and to be at Lucknow at the Christian /"fe 



112 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 



LETTER XV. 

CASTE. 

No one at all familiar with India but has heard about 
caste. From its use here it has become a word hateful 
to all reasonable people. Still, to some, even in our own 
home-land, others must be of their own grade or clique 
to receive much recognition or encouragement. Chris- 
tianity intends to do away with all this kind of thing, 
but evidently has not wholly done it in the home churches, 
though more nearly there than anywhere else in the 
world. Here, instead of being a mere nominal thing, it 
is a most elaborate, far-reaching power, with results and 
practices that in their minutiae are of the most exacting 
nature. Knowing our aversion as Westerners and 
Christians to such things, a transient and casual ob- 
server like me does not see very much of it, though 
enough still to show some of the horrible things that 
can be done in its name. 

They say here that the word is the Anglicized form of 
the Portuguese word casta, meaning race, and from that 
people came into use by the English to denote the dif- 
ferent classes into which the Hindus are divided. Some 
one has suggested that probably the system of caste 
had its origin, not in religious sentiments and practices, 
but in those of a division of labor and duties inhering 
in the natural condition of conquerors and conquered 
people. Indication can be found of this in the Hindu 
jati, race, applied to the system, and varna, color, since 



CASTE. 113 

the conquering Aryans greatly prided themselves on 
their color being lighter than that of the aborig- 
inal tribes they found in India. Far back in their 
sacred books, the Vedas, it is found that only two castes 
were recognized, the Aryans and the Dasyus. The first 
were the lordly Hindus, the Aryans, who in those times 
came down from Central Asia into the plains and val- 
leys of India, and, wresting this country from the abo- 
riginal tribes, the Turanians, called them the Dasyus, the 
second caste. This dispossessed race was driven before 
the more civilized Hindus into the hills, jungles, and 
mountains, or else were partly incorporated with the 
conquerors as servants and slaves. From these condi- 
tions seem to have arisen the Hindu terms of the sys- 
tem, for the two races were much different in many 
ways, perpetuating, no doubt, all the usual race antipa- 
thies likely to arise under conquest and contrast. The 
long residence of the Turanian tribes in the tropical 
climate had no doubt made them brown or black before 
the Aryan conquest. 

Manu, the great Indian lawgiver, has as fanciful an 
origin of caste as even the most wonderfully imagina- 
tive Indian could wish. He makes the number of castes 
four. To begin with, Brahma was born in a golden 
egg, and then, that the world might be peopled, this 
god caused the Brahman to issue from his mouth, the 
Kshatriya from his arms, the Yaisya from his thighs, 
and the Sudra from his feet. The Brahmans were 
the priests, the Kshatriyas the warriors, kings, and 
rajahs, the Yaisyas the householders or farmers, while 
the Sudras, those native tribes that embraced the Brah- 
man religion, were given menial duties. Those of the 
native tribes that did not yield to the claims of the 
hierarchy were the Dasyus, or outcasts, and to them. 



114 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

such as were in subjection to the Hindus, were assigned 
the most degrading duties, and despised accordingly. 

Bearing in mind that the real origin of caste must 
have been from the different races and general division of 
duties as a more civilized community developed, the in- 
crease of those castes from two or four to the multi- 
tudes that are now to be seen about one is to be traced, 
no doubt, to the division of duties and employments 
that would naturally be demanded as a vast increase in 
population and industries took place. But the fanciful 
Indian accounts for the increase of them according to 
his own tropical imagination the same as he does for their 
origin. Manu is again authority for saying that the 
four original castes intermarried various ways, and so 
gave rise to sixteen different castes, and these again by 
intermarrying produced the multitudinous ones of later 
times. But beyond their real multiplication through 
the division of employment no doubt other causes were 
operative, as the division of castes already established 
into clans that in time giew to be independent, the sep- 
arations that would naturally occur among the people 
through jealousies and quarrels who were not firmly 
held together by national coherency, and also by the 
differences of thought and practices that would be 
likely to arise through the adoption of new gods, dog- 
mas, and religious rites. In all these things the ferment, 
which must have been even greater in past ages than 
that now seen in India, might most easily and naturally 
have produced caste as now found. 

The lordly Brahman during those ages was not mod- 
est in the assumptions for himself or light in the pun- 
ishments inflicted on the lowly Sudras. They say that 
when the Brahman came into the world he was born 
above the world; was the chief of all creatures, with 



CASTE. 115 

tlie idea that whatever exists in the universe is all his 
property. Poor fellow ! If I should judge by some of 
the naked, dirty beggars I have seen belonging to this 
caste they must be dreadfully defrauded out of their 
rights. Even if a Brahman should be occupied in 
crimes of any sort, the king, they taught, should not 
slay him, but might put him out of the kingdom in 
possession of all his property and uninjured in body; 
and since no greater wrong is found on earth than kill- 
ing a Brahman the king should not even mentally con- 
sider his death. The lowly caste of Sudras, however, 
could not claim such amenities. If one killed a Sudra 
only such observances should be practiced as those prac- 
ticed for killing a cat, an ichneumon, a daw, or a frog, 
a lizard, an owl, or a crow. The Sudras, the books 
teach, were created merely for the service of the Brah- 
mans, and the latter may take possession of the goods 
of the former with perfect peace of mind, for nothing 
at all belongs to the Sudras. l!^ot less strange was the 
punishment decreed upon a luckless Sudra who should 
fall into evil-speaking of a Brahman. For violent 
words toward a Brahman a Sudra ought to have his 
tongue cut out; for insulting his name and caste, a red- 
hot iron, ten fingers long, should be thrust into his 
mouth; if, through insolence, he should presume to give 
instruction to the priests the king should cause boiling 
oil to be poured into his ear and mouth. No religious 
instruction should be given a Sudra, but if any one did 
it both he and the Sudra taught would sink into the 
darkness of the hell called the unbounded. 

Think of such a system with hundreds of gradations 
and thousands of observances, and even then one only 
gets glimpses in his mind of the absurdities and suffer- 
ings of the caste system. Possibly no people in the 



116 A WINTER m INDIA AND AIALAYSIA. 

world has ever been so priest-ridden as the Hindus. 
The aboriginal tribes before them had no castes; the 
Mohammedans who later conquered the Hindus have had 
little or none of such notions. It is no wonder that in 
the Buddhist revolt against such a system the masses of 
the people would fly to a faith -that had in it no place 
for caste. Nor is it any wonder that the Brahmans 
made a persistent, deadly struggle against Buddhism, 
and finally, for their own preservation, drove it entirely 
out of India. It is interesting to conjecture what 
would have been the condition of the Indian people 
had Buddhism prevailed through all the generations to 
the present. It is certain that those races that have ac- 
cepted Buddhism, the Burmese and the Chinese, are 
better off many ways than the Hindus. 

To us of independent customs and spirit it is hard to 
comprehend the thousand ways it attempts to touch every 
thing connected with one's existence. Having its ori- 
gin in the blood, so that one born a Brahman, or to one 
of the lower castes, it proposes to regulate for the babe 
the ways of nursing, for the boy and grown man the 
ways of eating and drinking. Be it said to the honor of 
Brahmanism that there is little drunkenness among the 
Hindus, and they despise the one addicted to strong 
drinks. Caste regulates the way a man shall wash, 
anoint his body, be clothed, ornamented, sit, rise, re- 
cline. A Brahman insists that the people believing his 
system shall travel, visit, speak, read, listen, in a certain 
way; one shall meditate by rule, and by rule do his 
working, singing, fighting. By the prescribed way 
only shall social and religious rites be performed; a 
law exists for all occuiDations, education, errors, sins, 
transgressions, for associating with others, for avoiding 
them, and for casting one out of his caste or fellowship, 



CASTE. 117 

for defilement and purification, for fines and other pun- 
ishments. By its laws property is inherited, possessed, 
conveyed; while it regulates bargains, losses, gains. In 
death, burial, and burning, caste laws shape all things, 
and even propose to go beyond death in its assistance 
and commemorations. Is it any wonder that under such 
a system India is moribund ? A race that under it has 
done as well as the Hindu can be expected to do won- 
derful things when living under so broad and catholic 
a system as Christianity. 

Already Christian civilization is doing much to 
weaken the hold that caste has on Indian character and 
custom. Many a young man and young woman edu- 
cated in mission or government schools has thereby 
been elevated above all caste, though in the beginning 
having come from one of the lowest grades. It hap- 
pens sometimes that children from the different castes 
coming to the mission schools are troubled about asso- 
ciating in class-rooms and in eating with one another, 
but the judicious missionary after a while shows that in 
a Christian school there can be no caste. A certain 
missionary gets over it by telling them that Christianity 
lifts its believers above all the castes. The natives 
themselves are coming to recognize this. They have 
told me of one of low caste who, on being educated in 
the schools, and becoming a successful physician, was 
honored, when he returned to his native village, by all 
castes, Brahmans as well as others being hearty and 
officious in their welcome to him. 

The improved modes of transit throughout all India, 
the good wagon-roads kept in finest shape by the gov- 
ernment, the railways and lines of steamers along the 
coasts, are all of them actual earthquake rumblings of 
the coming shock that will overthrow the whole thing. 



118 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

When the railways were put through the valleys and 
plains of India against the protests of the Brahmans, 
they appealed to the government to furnish them with 
separate cars to ride in; but the government would do 
no such thing. It seemed odd to me even to see the way 
the different castes would rush together into one of the 
fourth- class cars of a great through train. Thus there 
was little of tlie exclusiveness possible, and the subter- 
fuge of the fakirs that their sacred books predicted the 
railways, and so they are at liberty to use them without 
contaminating themselves, is a funny somersault. Rid- 
ing in an intermediate railway carriage one day, I had for 
companions only a Brahman and a British soldier. In 
his lunch the soldier had some beef, which the Brahman, 
finding out, kept far away from the package. To plague 
him the soldier offered him a piece, but the disgust and 
horror on the good Hindu's face were most interesting. 
Yet he was bound to be as polite as the soldier, so he 
offered us some of his parched rice pressed into thin 
cakes, which on eating we found very palatable. I 
wondered if he felt in any degree rebuked by our cath- 
olicity. 

Doubtless to such a community as India possesses 
caste offers a few good points. It makes a minute 
division of labor possible, and that is always a gain to 
populous, advancing countries. It is bound to protect 
and cherish those of its own caste even if it treats the 
needy of other castes like dogs. In matters of cleanli- 
ness, needed greatly in a country so populous as India, 
and in a climate so hot, it impels to great care. But 
these are what could be reached, and should be without 
the evils that caste brings. Some of the Indian peo- 
ple are awakening to the fact that the racial deteriora- 
tion so marked in the slender men and women of the 



CASTE. 119 

Hindus must be largely owing to the early marriages 
demanded without recourse by the caste system. Pov- 
erty must be intensified by the compulsion of each man 
to continue in the specific calling of his father. The 
whole tendency is to make labor degrading. Caste 
causes intellectual blight as well as physical, stands in 
the way of progress, of reform, of personal liberty, of 
any thing like national growth or patriotism. Its pride, 
arrogancy, depressing force on the aspirations natural to 
man, point to it as something that should not stand. 
It cannot perpetuate m.uch longer the tyranny of its 
past and present. The projection of Western ideas and 
of Christianity into India, the opening of all oflices by 
the government to any of the people, the initial awak- 
ening of some of the educated Hindus to the absurdities 
and enormities of the system, are all joining with many 
other influences not so apparent in forecasting the eternal 
doom of the horrible incubus. 



120 A WINTER JN INDIA AND 31 ALA YSIA. 



LETTER XYI. 

RELIGIOUSNESS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE. 

From the first I have been surprised at the multi- 
tudinous indications of worship. Temples, mosques, 
shrines, idols, are to be seen on every hand. It seems 
like what Paul saw at Athens. The three great native 
races, Mohammedans or Semites, the Aryan Hindus, 
and aboriginal tribes, all appear to have had a deep 
religious purpose, well carried out here in this country. 
Hinduism is a gigantic system, with its many gods, 
temples, priests, ritual, traditions, customs, caste, sacri- 
fices, and interminable books, while Mohammedanism is 
but little behind it in many of its visible signs of wor- 
ship, the mosques even rivaling the temples of the 
Hindus; the aboriginal tribes have much of the ancient 
nature-worship still in active operation in many parts of 
the country. Possibly the Hindu surpasses all others 
in the elaborate phases of his worship, for to him all 
thino-s must subserve his religjion. He has his sacred 
cities, rivers, places, days, gatherings. His eating, 
washing, work, marrying, traveling — every thing — is 
regulated by this thought. To us who put less stress 
upon outward appearances all this show is not wholly in 
taste, it suggests, however, a deep religiosity. Per- 
haps they are not more exclusively so than Christians, 
only one is constantly meeting cases that seem strange to 
us matter-of-fact Westerners. If morals were not so sep- 
arated from these pious practices we could hope so much 



RELIGIOUSNESS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE. 121 

of the latter would make a people upright and happy; 
but, unfortunately, there is a complete separation of 
religion and morals in the East. The Mohammedan 
Bedouin east of the Jordan will rise from his prayers 
toward Mecca, and proceed to rob you at once, and 
coolly kill you if you resist. Hardly less safe are you 
here in India, save under the all-powerful protection of 
British law. Some devout Hindu may be a thief, a 
libertine, or a beater of his wife. 

India abounds in holy cities and sacred spots. Be- 
nares is so holy that he who dies there is sure to go to 
heaven, and having been there and bathed in the sacred 
Ganges at its ghats is to have a passport to bliss. 
Muttra and its adjacent city of Brindaban are consid- 
ered in some respects equal or superior to Benares. 
Legends of their gods are usually connected with 
these holy cities. At Muttra Krishna did some of his 
most remarkable deeds of valor. At the junction of the 
Ganges and the Jumna is a very holy spot where tens 
of thousands at the annual mela gather in the search 
for salvation. Where the Ganges issues from the Him- 
alaya Mountains at Hurdwar is another holy region, and 
a continuous throng of pilgrims come here to worship, 
bathe, pray, and carry away the holy water for future 
use. At Amritsar, near Delhi, is a shrine-temple that 
calls devotees hardly less than Hurdwar and Benares. 
Not alone the Hindus, but the Mohammedans and abo- 
riginal tribes, have their places of special sanctity. In 
the devotion of Mohammedans Mecca holds the high- 
est place, but the great mosques here fall only a little 
behind that in sacredness. The Turanians are quite 
given to sacred spots and towns. Beside the beautiful 
mountain-enclasped Naini Tal is a hole reaching down 
among the rocks, where flowers, sweets, fruit, and 



122 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

grain are constantly offered, and where once a year a 
goat is now sacrificed in place of the human sacrifice 
formerly offered. The whole genius of these religions 
seems to be that man is to be saved by his works, his 
acts of devotion and penance. 

One is surprised here at the number of pilgrimages 
he sees taking place. Those on such journeys are 
usually marked by some part of their apparel, but more 
often can be distinguished by their baggage. Slung at 
the two ends of a bamboo stick will be two rude baskets 
of bamboo slits, in each of which is carefully carried a 
jar containing the holy water from some sacred place 
on the Ganges or other river. Besides the jars the 
pilgrim will have a bit of food and a few other things 
necessary for his journey. These pilgrims can be seen 
coming and going in little knots or alone on almost 
every great thoroughfare of India. In some instances 
there is no distinguishing mark by which these devotees, 
who have been to some sacred place or shrine, can be 
identified. At the season of their melas the tide of 
pilgrimage is very great. Benares, Muttra, Brindaban, 
Allahabad, and other places are thronged by the gathered 
multitudes, all in search of rest, happiness, money, and 
many other objects. The missionaries seize upon these 
occasions to preach Christ to the masses, and frequently 
much truth is accepted by the people. 

But the local shrines as well as the sacred places afar 
are well patronized. In Bombay I saw niches in the 
sides of houses where some image, often but two or six 
inches high, was set up, and devout people offering it 
flowers, sweets, nuts, and the like. Red ochre is a fa- 
vorite thing with which to smear these precious divini- 
ties. Oil is also used. A young priest stood in front 
of one image there, that seemed to be specially promi- 



RELIGIOUSNESS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE. 123 

nent, dipping up the oil that had run down from the 
form of the god into a little tank, and selling it out the 
second and doubtless the hundredth time to those 
crowding around. When a little was obtained the dev- 
otee had the priest pour it over the idol, to drip down 
and be sold again. At the crossing of a large bridge 
at Lucknow I noticed a woman and boy burning a bit 
of incense and placing some flowers, sweets, and a pice, 
a coin worth half an American cent, in a shrine only as 
large as a man's hat. Interested in such peculiar devo- 
tions, I asked our missionary, Mr. Maxwell, if I could 
not take the coin away to keep it as a memento. He 
said I could, as some one else would soon take it if I 
did not. Waiting till the devotees were through their 
devotions, and then a moment for them to get away, I 
approached the shrine, but a native was before me, who 
quietly appropriated the money. He evidently held no 
notions of its being sacred, for on Mr. Maxwell's offer- 
ing him another pice for it he readily made the ex- 
change, and I secured the choice coin. In Benares, in 
the very streets and far back from the water of the 
Ganges River, would be stones to mark a sacred spot, 
and on it little bits of food or bunches of flowers would 
be offered. 

Many of the Turanians worship objects of nature by 
such means that one can see the proofs. Under the 
sacred peepul-tree would often be found little shrines or 
platforms of brick and mortar for worshipers. On the 
branches and twigs of this and many other trees one 
would frequently see bits of cloth hung as an offering, 
while in the Himalayas, and among the hill tribes gen- 
erally, cocks and other birds are thus devoted. There 
is one section of the Himalayan tribes that makes the 
plant euphorbia its supreme god, and has also its god 



124 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

of cholera, small-pox, and fevers. With them the 
mountain streams are deities, as well as many more 
trivial things. I could not help wondering if much of 
the worship and superstition of the common people of 
India was not part of the Turanian cult preserved in 
spite of Hindu faith, through Buddhism and Moham- 
medanism. So much of it is puerile superstition and 
gross sensualism that from the better teachings of the 
old Vedas there must have been some dreadful trend 
downward. Possibly the natural trend of a system so 
imperfect as the Yedic will account for all the degra- 
dation, but I doubt it in this case. 

Sun-worship is still ]3racticed by some of the Indian 
people, both among the old tribes and the Hindus. 
Many a time I saw at Benares and elsewhere the up- 
turned face and outstretched hands toward that lurai- 
nar}^ Doubtless this would be less degrading to human 
life and morals than much else of their systems. Birds 
and animals of one kind and another are also objects of 
worship. The peacock is so sacred that if one is shot 
by a Westerner, near a village, the villagers raise a great 
outcry, fearing famine, disease, death, and other calam- 
ities to themselves for the sacrilege. It was strange to 
see these birds, only half wild, and know their immu- 
nity from harm. The monkeys are held in much the 
same reverence, and have by this protection not only 
increased to great numbers in some localities, but have 
become destructive pests to the farmers. As an indica- 
tion of the decay of certain native superstitions it is in- 
teresting to learn that in some districts they are se- 
riously considering the necessity of exterminating these 
pestiferous simians. All life is differently regarded in 
India from what it is with us. Birds and animals are 
never killed. Even the deadly cobra is regarded with 



RELIGIOUSNESS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE. 125 

such veneration that tlie natives do not kill it. Hence 
animal life of all kinds swarms throughout the countiy. 
One from the West is astounded at it. So strong is the 
native reverence for life that even the missionaries do 
not kill the wild animals and birds for meat that they 
otherwise would do but for this sentiment. One of the 
missionaries was sent to a locality abounding in deer. 
Having a gun, he used to shoot one now and then for 
food. An old Brahman with whom he talked about the 
Christian religion said : " You claim to be a good man, 
yet you kill these innocent creatures God has made. I 
cannot believe you wnll do that if you are a servant of 
so good a God as you tell about." It compelled the 
missionary to lay aside his rifle and shoot no more 
deer. In spite of such reverence for animal life more 
than one part of their cult enjoins animal sacrifice, that 
of the worship of Rama, the monkey-god, and of Kali, 
the tutelary goddess of Calcutta, being prominent. I 
was too late by an hour to see the daily sacrifice of a 
goat at the shrine of the former god at the monkey 
temple of Benares, but the clotted blood was yet on the 
stones and posts. On the contrary, at Calcutta I did 
see the entire act of sacrifice. It was so out of conso- 
nance with the usual spirit of the Hindus toward ani- 
mals that it appeared the more shocking. To place 
this along-side of other things I saw^, the patience with 
thieving monkeys, the immunity offered to crows, kites, 
vultures, and other rapacious birds, created a powerful 
contrast. In Bombay I saw a man smear the sides of 
a tree with melted sugar, to which the ants crowded in 
myriads to get the daily food there regularly given 
them. 

I have not seen as much of the fakirs' methods as I 
expected, yet enough to get practical insight into their 



126 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

ways of doing things. These methods, like many of 
the grosser forms of idolatry, are gradually disappear- 
ing. In Bombay I saw one fakir measuring his length 
along the dirty street, walking at each time of rising 
only as far as his head reached from the point where he 
set his feet before, l^o one paid any attention to him, 
and he was too much absorbed in his practical mode of 
sanctity to pay any attention to the passing crowds 
about him. In Huldwanee, at the foot of the Hima- 
layas, one sat on his haunches backed up in a little 
recess in a stone wall built under a sacred peepul-tree, 
and there with the chill air blowing down from the 
mountains was nearly naked, as a disciple built a bit of 
fire from grass and twigs in front of him in the bazar. 
Mr. Craven suggested to him that such abnegations 
could not win him salvation, and that instead he should 
come to Christ for what he was seeking. He boldly 
declared that he was worshiping Christ, but Mr. Craven 
assured him he could not in that way. The abjectest 
sight of this kind I saw was in the streets of Moradabad. 
A fakir under some vow was lying on his back and 
making what progress he could toward the spot or 
shrine of his vow by hitching along sideways, a most 
slow and painful mode of locomotion indeed. His 
underside was protected from the lacerating wear that 
must take, place by a matting of straw fastened to his 
otherwise almost naked body. One could not see such 
efforts to win salvation as these without knowing that 
behind it all was a religious sentiment, which was the 
sublimation of centuries of intense religiousness, and 
which, directed into ways of truth, would make these 
idolatrous Indian people, as we know those converted 
do become, self-sacrificing, devoted, and persistent Chris- 
tians. 



RELIGIOUSNESS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE. 127 

I was greatly interested in learning about some of 
their methods of prayer. A string of beads from a 
sacred kind of wood, or those composed of the seed of a 
certain kind of fruit, affords means of continuous praying. 
One will see a man going along the street with such a 
string of beads dangling loosely in his hands, mutter- 
ing in an undertone, as he slips the beads along the 
string, the name of his god — "Ram, Ram, Ram." If he 
wants his prayer to be three or four times as efficacious 
he will put the right hand, holding the string of beads, 
into a little bag with the thumb out, having texts from 
his sacred books inscribed on the bag, and, counting 
them over, pray in that way to the god Ram. I tried 
to buy a string of beads hanging about the neck of a 
dirty Brahman, but he would not sell them short of a 
ruinous price, though in a bazar I did secure a new 
string, which perhaps was safer for me to handle. These 
Brahmans are sometimes contemptuous to us Western 
people. In their cult such lazy fellows are superior to 
princes and kings, though they may be the veriest beg- 
gars, and in nakedness. I think their contempt for 
Western people must be diminishing, as almost always 
they were respectful, and often eager to please. To 
them many things are lawful that are wicked for others 
to do; hence till British laws rudely shook them up 
their course was often high-handed and peculiar. In- 
dia people, from Brahman to Sudra, need the Gospel 
most of all things. 



128 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 



LETTER XVII. 

AMONG THE MISSIONARIES AT SHAHJEHANPORE. 

They promised me three or four days of seeing hand- 
to-hand missionary work among the non-Christian vil- 
lagers out from Shahjehanpore, and for this I gave up 
a week of hunting among the tigers, elephants, leop- 
ards, deer, and other large game in the " Tarai " near 
tlie foot of the Himalayas, but finally lost both. On 
my getting here Dr. Hoskins said it was a poor time 
for his outside work, as it was New Year's week, my 
arrival being December 31. If I lost both my cov- 
eted hunting with Mr. Craven's native Christians in the 
jungle and the outside mission work, I have still had 
rich compensation. There is a double mission here, 
that of the city and outlying regions one way, while 
the orj)hanage at East Shahjehanpore, in charge of Rev. 
C. L. Bare and wife, is the head-quarters for another im- 
portant mission station. As almost every-where through 
these regions, our work is very promising, with many 
most pressing opportunities which, for lack of men and 
means to enter upon them, must be allowed to remain 
unused for the present. 

A Yankee abroad becomes hungry for several things 
— the loved ones left behind, the dear old flag, the 
congenial associations, and even for the food on which 
he grew and thrived. Is it a wonder, then, that I was 
delighted, in this typical household, to sit down to a 
surpi'ise of real Yankee dishes — salt codfish, buckwheat 



AMONG THE MISSIONARIES AT SHAHJEHANPORE. 129 

griddle-cakes, mince-pie and apple-pie ? Then the next 
day, added to these were baked beans and brown 
bread, hot and luscious. They had received a box con- 
taining possibilities for these things all the way from 
their son at college in Boston. 

I found this diligent missionary, who is burdened 
with the care of multitudinous duties and claims, in- 
dulging at odd hours his high literary tastes in trans- 
lating into English a large and important portion of 
the Yedas that has not yet seen the light in our tongue. 
In doing this he is first compelled to make his own 
lexicon of Sanskrit terms. When this great work is 
done it will add not only another valuable classic trans- 
lated from other tongues into the English, but it will 
bring deserved praise upon this scholar, as well as 
lengthen the long list of those missionaries who have 
added to our philological knowledge and treasures. 

The school work done here is of the most promising 
kind. Not alone is it organized for the boys, but also 
for the girls. The latter are attending the central 
school to the number of forty, and the steady increase 
will soon demand much larger quarters than now, 
while through the city and near by two more primary 
schools are going on with about two hundred girls in 
them. It is due the girls, as well as the boys, that 
they have these advantages of Christianity. Then, 
too, India, as all other countries, can rise no higher 
than her women are elevated, and here, as every-where 
in Christianity, woman has vast duties to perform in 
winning souls to Christ and teaching the better way. 
The boys' schools are also most prosperous. The cen- 
tral or high school for them has about one hundred and 
fifty boys, in buildings owned by the mission, while 
other schools are filled with those of primary grades. 



180 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

Of the high school nearly half the pupils are Christians, 
so that the influence for the truth is deep and good. 
I have told in another letter of the Sunday-school I 
visited in this city which is held in the place and 
among the pupils of one of the primary schools. The 
work is all charming and the prospect most promising. 
A good-sized native church meets in the mission com- 
pound, to which I had the pleasure of preaching, the 
translation being made by Dr. Hoskins; while at a 
small English church near the railway depot I also had 
the same pleasure. 

Dr. Hoskins wanted me to attend street-preaching 
with him one week-day, which I was most glad to do. 
A great wagon was filled with native Christians from the 
mission, some of whom had instruments, so a brass 
band was pretty well represented. Another wagon 
carried Dr. -Hoskins and me. On a corner opposite 
a market-shed they placed a box that Dr. Hoskins 
mounted, the band played, and then for ten minutes 
the preacher spoke to the crowd of two hundred or 
more that had collected. After him one of the native 
preachers spoke a while; then I did. Dr. Hoskins trans- 
lating. The band put in the interludes. By this time 
occurred what usually takes place there — a Mohamme- 
dan moulvie or priest came near, and mounting a piece 
of timber also began speaking, but in antagonism to 
Christianity. Some of the people on the street had run 
to a mosque and told him of the work of the Christians, 
so -he had hurried to offset their teachings. Their 
stock-in-trade argument against Christianity is that it is 
not monotheism, and that Jesus was of impure human 
origin. The whole scene was strange. The light dust 
of the street and moving crowds filled the air, the 
noisy babel of tongues was continuous, the market- 



AMONG THE MISSIONARIES AT SHAHJEHANP ORE. 181 

ing did not cease, the rumble of carts and trarap of 
passers made a din, the Mohammedan preacher attracted 
as much of an audience as we had, the two crowds 
partly coalescing. Boys stood with cages of partridges 
on their heads, which they teach to fight, while others 
carried bulbuls on perches for the same purpose. Pass- 
ing teams were stopped that their drivers might listen 
to the preaching; men with great loads on their heads 
paused to hear the truth. The missionaries like this 
hand-to-hand work, and I do not wonder at it. 

At East Shahjehanpore is the orphanage for boys, 
and this demands American missionaries for its direct- 
ors. Rev. C. L. Bare and wife have about two hun- 
dred boys here, some of them doing little besides regu- 
lar school work, being considered promising ones for 
teachers, preachers, and the like; others are taught the 
trade of making slioes and carpentry much as they 
would do in America, while some poor blind ones 
were busy making ropes from native grass. These 
ropes and cords, while not as strong as cotton and 
hemp, are still very serviceable. Their rope-walk 
across the yard of their shop, their funny way of twist- 
ing the ropes, the facility of the blind boys in laying 
the grass into the first strands were all most interesting 
to me. These orpharnages, like this and at Cawnpore, 
and that for girls at Bareilly, are among the richest 
gifts of Christ to India. 

An incident will illustrate this claim. On a winter day 
years ago one of our missionaries, Mrs. Humphrey, of 
Budaon, sat warming her feet at the cozy grate, when 
she heard a feeble call at the door, ''Mem Sahib," and go- 
ing there found two boys, the one carried on the back of 
the other. The older one said, " We are starving, and 
we heard you kept children here." So she took them in. 



132 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

fed, clothed, and educated them. One grew to be a 
successful physician, and though from the low caste of 
farmers was honored, as he visited his native village, by 
having a chair brought for him to sit in, as is done only 
for those whom they desire to honor most highly. 
That simple fact led a young fellow who saw the mat- 
ter to look into Christianity, who in turn became 
educated and was set at preaching. This preacher 
heard of a " guru," or teacher, in a native state who 
had obtained a copy of the New Testament which he 
had set up as an idol and was worshiping it. To this 
teacher the native preacher went, taught him the better 
way of using the book, brought him and his son to our 
mission, where they are now workers in the ministry, 
and teaching. Such wonderful things are constantly 
being done. 

The grounds of the East Shahjehanpore Orphanage, 
formerly the residence of an English official, comprise 
about twenty-five acres, with a good home for the mis- 
sionary, ample buildings for the shops and school, and 
houses for the pastor, the teachers, and servants, while 
in another part is a home for widows, in which about a 
dozen find refuge, and which is mostly self-supporting. 
Here is also a dispensary in charge of a native physi- 
cian, where he gave last year more than ten thousand 
prescriptions. Such piteous facts as come to the knowl- 
edge of these physicians ! The baleful effects of hea- 
thenism smite the body as well as the soul of those in it. 
The government gives five hundred rupees a year in 
medicines to this dispensary. 

The orphanage owns some fields that are too large 
to be carried on by the boys, so they are let out to reg- 
ular farmers at about nine rupees an acre. The gardens 
into which they took me afforded, in the dead of win- 



AMONG THE MISSIONARIES AT SHAHJEHANPORE. 133 

ter, strange things in that season to a Yankee. There 
were green peas and beans, new potatoes, turnips, to- 
matoes, radishes, lettuce, and the like, kept fresh and 
growing by water drawn from a deep well. The gar- 
dener, pleased with my visit, plucked for me a big 
bouquet of flowers — roses, heliotropes, peas, beans, two 
kinds of jasmine, myrtle, and other flowers, the fifth 
day of January! 

Not the least interesting thing was a day of hunting 
in the jungle and another day of going to the native 
Christian village of Panapur. This is a place where 
the land bought by the missionaries has had a number 
of the native Christians settled, in which they are 
mostly saved from the sharp persecutions of their non- 
Christian neighbors. It is ten miles from East Shah- 
jehanpore, most of tlie way on one of those superb 
roads of India that are as smooth and level as a floor, 
laid down of the peculiar lime concretions filling the 
soil, which they all call " kunker." From that road it 
is three miles into the jungle, or timber, most of the 
way scrubby growth of Indian trees covering the 
ground. No other native villages are very near, and 
while this experiment is not wholly a success it is not 
nearly a failure. Two or three hundred native Chris- 
tians have comfortable homes, with a church and a 
school-house. Their fields, only in part a success, because 
of the alkaline soil, are yet productive, w^hile they are 
creating a good influence for Christianity on the vil- 
lages about them. Word had been sent ahead a day 
or two of our coming, and an hour set when I should 
preach to them. The Christians had scattered the news 
to the contiguous villages, so that through the jungle 
from several of these numbers had come to listen, who, 
together with the inhabitants of Panapur, made the 



184 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

church full, and more. An American who could meet 
and preach to such an audience and not be deeply 
moved would have cold blood indeed. There were old 
men and women whose hair was sprinkled with white, 
lithe, agile young men and women, w^hile in front, 
squatting on the mats, were dozens of boys, and all 
through the audience children of smaller size. I urged 
that they should do just as Jesus would want them to 
do if he were present among them. I was introduced, 
as usual, by our missionaries, as " Padre Dr. Knox, 
Sahib," the padre being the general designation of 
preacher in India, from the expression taught by the 
Roman Catholics of different nations long before Prot- 
estant missions w^ere introduced. The sahib is the 
native term of respect. In this motley gathering were 
Brahmans, Rajputs, Christians, low-caste villagers, men 
and women, so that the old caste exclusiveness was 
dreadfully shaken up in the Christian church. A 
young Brahman, who only a year ago had stealthily 
approached Mr. Bare with a club from behind to 
kill him, and was seized by some of our native Chris- 
tians, was there, an attentive listener, and, having been 
a seeker of the truth for some months, told our mis- 
sionaries that now he was ready to be baptized. The 
leaven is working all through Indian society. Grim 
old Rajputs, the remnants of the warrior caste, are 
sitting in meek tractableness at the feet of our mis- 
sionaries. 

We wandered through the village to see some of the 
industries of the |)eople. Women sat under the porches 
busy at rude spinning and mat-making; others were 
cooking, all were glad to see the Americans. When 
leaving the village we w^ere attracted by some native 
music, and going to it with Dr. Hoskins I found a wed- 



AMONG THE MISSIONARIES AT SHAHJEHANPORE. 135 

ding was being- prepared for. In one of the mud huts 
half a dozen women were seated on the mats in a circle, 
chanting to the rhythm and movement of their instru- 
ments the virtues and beauties of the bridegroom. It 
was in the house of the bride, and behind some curtains, 
or blankets, she was supposed to be hidden. Dr. Hos- 
kins told me the burden of their chanting was the 
brightness of the groom's eyes, the strength of person, 
the prettiness of his lips, the sleekness of his hair, the 
amount of his possessions, and the like. The instru- 
ments were a native drum or two beaten with the finger- 
tips, a kind of tambourine, a violin of two or three 
strings, and others as rude. It was at once a strange 
and interesting sight. On our first approach they 
ceased, but were persuaded to go on after a little such 
coy reserve as is usual with good singers. The young 
Brahman and a young local preacher of the village 
went with us a long way on the road as we finally left, 
a custom often observed as a native village is visited by 
some one whom they wish to honor. I noticed this 
custom several times. 

Being just at night as we came out through the timber, 
the monkeys that had kept out of sight during the glare 
of the sun were now up the trees by the dozens, scam- 
pering down to run off if we went toward them. 
Some exquisitely beautiful sparrows, the males rich 
red, black, and yellow, the females brown and dun, 
were gathered in large flocks among the tall grass 
and reeds. They were not more than half as large 
as the smallest American sparrows. At the junction 
of the jungle road with the main one, in an open 
yard, or khan, was a group of pilgrims returning from 
the Ganges, each with two jars of the sacred water 
slung to each end of a bamboo stick. They were 



136 A WINTER W INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

preparing their frugal supper over a fire made of 
grass and leaves, and were not at all averse to talking 
about the Christian religion and life. They seemed 
ashamed to claim sin-washing power in the water 
they had, and declared they were only hired by a rich 
man to go and bring it to him. 



A DAY OF HUNTING IN INDIA. 137 



LETTER XVIII. 

A DAY OF HUNTING IN INDIA. 

We planned the day before to steal out at half past 
three in the morning ; so at three the faithful cook 
tapped at my door, saying, '* Chota hazari, sahib," 
which meant an early lunch for me. The vehicle for 
going the thirteen miles to good hunting-grounds was 
a two-wheeled bullock-cart, with a small box-rack filled 
with dried grass and a seat for me, upon which I did 
not sit much of the time, finding it easier to lie on the 
dried grass. The hours until daylight were enlivened 
by chimes of howls and barkings from a chorus com- 
posed of jackals, foxes, and dogs. The zodiacal radiance 
in the East is much greater than in the United States, 
so that we were not without light; then through the 
thin clouds the morning dawn gradually broke, and 
soon I was peering into the dim light for game. With 
me were the head-master of the orphanage school at 
Shahjehanpore, and the manager of its industrial de- 
partment, both of whom could speak English well ; 
then a man to drive the bullock-cart, one to care for the 
master's horse, and one to carry my gun. It is easy to 
have a lot of servants in India. Some herons, plovers, 
and ducks were gathered about the muddy pond-holes, 
and my second attempt to secure a shot at some ducks 
succeeded better than one at a flock of plovers, for I 
killed a green-winged teal, almost exactly like those we 
have in America. A shot by Frank, the master, placed 



138 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

another in the bag. A flock of another kind that we 
failed to get a shot at were very large and fine. Pig- 
eons were common, and during the day we bagged 
quite a number of them, though they were so small we 
usually tried to get two in range before firing. They ^ 
were much smaller than the blue pigeon in America, 
being more like the turtle-dove. There is difficulty in 
stalking birds of the water habit here, as there are 
hardly ever any bushes about the pond-holes, but open 
ground. There are vast numbers at this season of the 
year; they congregate about the larger ponds, till in 
one place you can see hundreds of them, and, as the 
plains are level, they can be seen from a long distance. 
The largest of these water-birds is the adjutant, a tall 
wader, standing more than four feet high, dull lead- 
color, with a bright scarlet head. Some are brown, 
black, or black and white. Herons, ibises, cranes, peli- 
cans, and others gather into one flock. Strange, but 
true, that three or four of these herons are fine to eat. 
At ten o'clock we came to a village Avhere the man- 
ager and the master were knov/n and where the Meth- 
odist mission has a native preacher stationed. His 
house was open to us and his stable to our tired beasts. 
From there we pushed for the jungle after getting a 
second lunch or breakfast. The walk of two miles 
through fields green with wheat, dal, sugar-cane, pota- 
toes, and other grains was a novel sensation for me the 
fourth day of January, at which date I have been used 
to going hunting or fishing with a sleigh or snow- 
shoes. The jungle, toward which we toiled through a 
sun so hot that I was compelled besides wearing a pith 
hat to carry an umbrella, was like a second growth of 
scrub oaks in Virginia, with the addition of sharp 
thorns and hooked prickles on at least half the vines 



A DA Y OF HUNTING IN INDIA. 139 

and shrubs. Making our way far into this to a tall tree, 
one of the men climbed it to look out for deer, but 
could not descry any. So we went beating about to 
see if we could find one. They said there were boars, 
foxes, and peacocks, besides other game, in there. But 
we toiled our devious way for a long time without see- 
ing more than one lone rabbit that suddenly hid in the 
thicket, and many small birds, when, not more than 
twenty yards in front of me, there was a quick rush 
from a dense mass of bushes and vines ; but the big 
game, whatever it was, kept out of sight till it had run 
some distance, and then, turning a short corner toward 
my left, a beautiful deer bounded into sight; but so thick 
were the bushes that I got only a snap shot at it with 
buckshot, missing it, and then trying again at long 
range with triple B shot. At that shot I thought it fell, 
but if it did it was quickly on its feet, and, bounding 
away, ran in sight for two or three hundred yards. It 
did not run in even jumps, but would make two or 
three low short ones and then bound high in the air 
with a leap that must have been twenty or thirty feet 
long. Well, there were two shots at one deer wnth no 
results save to show us, after being nearly discouraged, 
that deer were in there. Again we scattered out 
in the jungle, the manager and master each having a 
gun, when, after a few minutes, I heard a shot from 
the manager at my left and a loud cry which I knew 
meant that the deer was coming my way. In an in- 
stant I saw it a hundred yards or more away, making 
flying leaps, and, though knowing it was practically use- 
less to try buckshot at such long range, I fired in hope 
— a useless one, for the shot struck into the ground 
short of the game, when that one, and two others which 
came out of the thicket near by, went leaping off to- 



140 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA 7SIA. 

gether. Tr}^ to imagine the feelings of one with the 
hunter's instincts strong in him making such work 
shooting deer in an Indian jungle ! An hour's follow- 
ing after them through the thorns, prickles, and stiff 
brusli, under a sun that beat on me a hundred and thirty 
degrees of heat, did not serve to improve my feeling 
of disappointment. Turning then to make my way to- 
Avard the village, as I had agreed with the others, and 
coming out of the brush into some spots of tall grass, 
to help at improving my feelings a rabbit scooted 
away from under my feet and a couple of partridges 
flew in good shooting range, but all the time my gun in 
both barrels was loaded with buckshot. I drew one 
charge, replacing it with fine shot, but after that did 
not see a partridge or quail. Tired, heated, and foot- 
sore, I joined the others, to hear that a glimpse of a 
boar had been obtained by the manager's servant, and 
that was all. 

As we were going across the fields the farmers at 
work told us of a herd of ten or twelve deer having 
been seen in a great sugar-cane field that day. Toward 
that we went half a mile out of our way to find that 
another farmer close by the cane had seen them go off 
toward the jungle an hour before. The master brought 
in another duck from a pond to which I was too tired 
to go. Again a deep dip into the lunch-basket sent by 
the missionary's wife, an hour's rest, and we were ready 
to go back home. It was then four o'clock and the 
game was out on the fields, so that we had a better 
chance than going into the village. Plover and 
pigeons were too far away for me. I let the others go 
after them. Then the master, horseback, saw a couple 
of young adjutants, and, calling two of his men, he 
chased the birds over the wheat-fields till he ran them 



A DAT OF HUNTING IN INDIA. 141 

down, and his men picked them up, bringing them to 
the orphanage alive to tame. In the meantime the 
manager and I, with our guns, went to a pond at which 
we could see a vast flock of waders gathering, and, 
creeping within about a hundred and fifty yards, I fired 
with a barrel loaded with triple B shot, and one of the 
immense herons was my reward. If one was left two 
or three thousand flew away. Just at dusk I shot an- 
other from the top of a tree whose stretch of wings 
was eighty-two inches, while the first one's wings 
stretched just one hundred inches. I had determined 
to shoot only those birds that were edible, and, strange 
as it may seem to American gastronomists, both these 
herons were fine birds to eat, being assured so by the 
men with me and by the missionaries before going out. 
I can bear witness to the fine flavor of the smaller one, 
for I ate heartily of it for dinner before writing this 
letter. With a good bag of small birds, two immense 
herons dead, and two live adjutants, we had a fine lot 
of game as we made our way slowly back to Shahjehan- 
pore. But not so slowly, if we were on a bullock-cart. 
The white, hump-backed bullocks here are trained to 
rapid going compared to American oxen, so that we 
made the last ten miles in three hours. But in order to 
do so our quondam driver was obliged to work his pas- 
sage. He was the master, who, giving his horse to the 
manager, came and took the regular driver's seat. That 
seat was on the tongue of the cart, far ahead between 
the bullocks. With a short, tough stick in his right 
hand to use in striking or punching the beasts as he 
wished, he would do with his left hand what all bullock- 
drivers here do, curl the tail of the near ox, sometimes 
giving it a sharp twist, then push the hips of first one 
bullock, then the other, to one side, all of which things, 



142 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

and various native cries and shouts, are intended to 
hurry up the team. Yet all of these means did not 
produce speed enough to suit him, so he spread my um- 
brella and used that first one side and then the other to 
frighten the bullocks to greater speed. They could not 
run away with us, for there is always a rope passing 
through a hole between the nostrils to guide and hold 
them. In a chorus, similar to that of the morning, of 
jackals and dogs, we pushed ahead, so that nine o'clock 
found us at home, tired, but a jolly set, such as hunters 
are apt to be. 



THE BIRDS OF INDIA US 



LETTER XIX. 

THE BIRDS OF INDIA. 

No sooner had I landed at Bombay than I found my- 
self in the land of birds. Crows, whose cawing was 
coarse and rasping, were tame as sparrows in America, 
perching on the fences, porches, in the windows, and 
even entering houses to steal food and trinkets. They 
are smaller than American crows, with gray about the 
neck and shoulders. One species, not common, is black 
all over and larger than these. The kites were also 
numerous in Bombay, great brown fellows, acting as 
scavengers about the streets and houses, and, like the 
crows, half -domesticated. 

The crows, hawks, kites, and vultures constitute a 
most valuable force of scavengers. Refuse of every 
kind about the great cities is picked up by them. In 
this they are also aided by the pariah dogs and the 
hardly less tame jackals. The latter skulk out of sight 
in the bushes, hedges, and jungles near the great cities 
in the day-time, and do valuable service at night in 
cleaning yards and streets. It seemed a sad degrada- 
tion, however, for the beautiful hawks and kites to leave 
their normal habits of capturing live game to pick bits 
of decaying meat, broken bread, and dirty scraps. So 
numerous are these birds that they gather sometimes 
about the cities in great flocks. 

The Indian people never kill birds nor animals, so they 
not only increase to great numbers, but become familiar 



lU A WINTER m INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

to mankind. I was told that the kites would sometimes 
snatch a piece of bread or meat from one's hand, and I 
saw one trying to get some meat from a small dog by 
swooping savagely down upon him. On the Towers of 
Silence, where the Parsees of Bombay lay the bodies of 
their dead friends instead of burying them, huge, fat, 
lazy vultures sat gloomily waiting for new victims to 
eat. 

A ride of a thousand miles to Delhi and Moradabad 
showed me a glimpse of India's wealth in birds. The 
cars would start up almost a continuous flock of one 
kind or another. All of them are new to one from 
America, yet most of them can be located at sight in 
their classified families. Every pool or pond-hole of 
water had some representatives of the waders — great, 
tall, scarlet-headed adjutants slowly walking away from 
the rumble of the cars; pelicans, cranes, ibises, and 
other tall ones were also common. The mud-hens, rails, 
grebes, plovers, ducks, and others could be seen flying, 
diving, running away, or standing in silent fear as the 
train thundered past them. A peculiarity I noticed at 
Shahjehanpore was a flock of herons fljang in a waltz- 
ing movement, keeping a general course, indeed, but 
sailing around and around each other. 

In this country the peacocks are considered sacred, so 
they are quite common, and though not domesticated, 
are hardly wild. One sees them about the fields, 
hedges, and gardens, with little fear of the natives. If 
an Englishman shoots one a great uproar is apt to fol- 
low among the superstitious people. There is another 
sacred bird, the Indian roller, as large as a blue jay, 
and allied to the fly-catcher. It has most beautiful 
plumage of blue, green, black, or buff, the wing bars of 
deep and light blue, making it very attractive as it flies. 



THE BIRDS OF INDIA. 145 

I saw it many times sitting on the telegraph-wires, 
watching for insects along the railroad. I hardly won- 
der that these two birds of such brilliantly beautiful 
plumage are held sacred by the Hindus. A kind of 
bird the name of which I have not learned other than 
that of "hang-nests" has the peculiarity of building its 
nests attached to limbs of trees over pools of water. I 
first noticed these on the way from Bombay to Delhi 
as they hung over pond-holes made by grading the 
railway. The nests, bottle-shaped, eight or ten inches 
long, are a veritable pocket. They are made of tough 
grasses, hair, and the like, so that they endure long 
after serving the purpose for which they are built. In 
this place, and hung on slender limbs, they are secure 
from the snakes and other vermin that so often rob nests. 
Sometimes several of these nests would be hanging from 
one tree. 

The fly-catchers are a fine family of birds here. One, 
a large, black, forked-tailed bird, is called the " king 
crow," from its ability to drive those thievish fellows 
from their nests. It has the habit of the shrike in 
catching small birds. It also selects the telegraph-wire 
for a perch. The same place is chosen by a smaller, 
pale-green fly-catcher, that often sat still, like the king 
crow, as the train rushed by. This family of birds is 
also represented by several bright-colored species, which 
follow their valuable work, giving most pleasing sights. 

The number of the starling family I have seen is 
very great. Two of them have become as domestic 
about the streets and native bazars as the English 
sparrow in the United States. Their name here is 
mynah. They are dark, about the size of a robin, go 
in flocks, and when flying the common mynah shows 
broad white bars on its wings, reminding me of the 
]0 



146 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

mocking-bird at home. This family has also some 
briglit-colorecl species that I have not seen. The na- 
tives occasionally tame the common mynah, teaching it 
to say " Krishna," the name of one of their gocls. One 
species has acquired a fanciful name among the English 
people, that of the " Seven Brothers." It is claimed 
that seven of them always go together, but on counting 
a number of these groups I have found that the rule 
does not always hold good. Several times seven were 
present, to be sure, but at other times there was a lack, 
owing, they assured me, to the fact that one or two 
were out of sight for the moment. I presume this reg- 
ular number may be a whole family, two parents and 
five chicks of the present year's brood. 

The most charming kinds of sparrows are to be found 
here. Possibly the season was not the best for finding 
a large number of species, but those I did see interested 
me greatly. Not that I was pleased to see the trouble- 
some English sparrow, that in America we so much re- 
gret having introduced, and which I saw every- where 
the Englishman stays, but the native species were beau- 
tiful. A few species were as gray and unobtrusive as 
our home ones, but others were much more brilliant. 
One kind that I first saw in a great cage at the Bom- 
bay market, and afterward in the country, was much 
smaller than our smallest species, and of a brilliant black, 
red, and buff. Others had some yellow, in that approach- 
ing the canary-bird. As is common with such birds in 
the winter season, they went in flocks; their loading 
the tufts of tall grasses, searching for seeds, was most 
interesting. 

Of the robins I have seen three species, though they 
tell me there are several more. The coloration of one 
was a black head and back, with under parts buff, 



t 



THE BIRDS OF INDIA. 147 

much like oiir orchard oriole. Their high colors, as 
compared with our brown matter-of-fact robins, are 
most interesting. The scarlet tanager is very like 
ours, being possibly a bit more slim, its back and head 
black, breast light, the body a brilliant scarlet. The 
nut-hatch was as saucy when I saw him as he is in 
America, running up and down the body and limbs of 
trees. Woodpeckers found ample chance for their pe- 
culiar mode of getting a living among the luxuriant 
growth of mango and other kinds of tropical trees. 
They are mostly black and white, as with us, the males 
having the usual red head. One species has a bright 
golden back, mottled breast, and red head, being in size 
like the j^ellow-bellied woodpeckers of America. 

A bit of a bird, slim, graceful, white below, gray 
above, well deserved its name of wagtail. Immediately 
on alighting, or when walking away from one's approach, 
its tail was most nervously jerked up and down. 

I was surprised at the number and antics of the 
kingfishers. Used to but one species at home, I was 
hardly prepared to see half a dozen here. None of 
them is as large, I think, as the belted kingfisher in the 
United States, while some are as small as our bluebirds. 
Every pond, river, and brook in this warm country 
teems with fish, so that there is ample food for them. 
Often I saw them hovering and hanging over the water, 
curiously peering down into it, and then like an arrow 
shooting downward after their prey. Their plumage, 
in some instances, is most brilliant, one especially being 
almost as green as a paroquet. 

Ah, what is that loud, sharp screeching ? Look, it is 
the paroquet's nervous scolding. Such noisy fellows 
as they are ! They never seem at rest, but always to 
be moving and screeching. I think they fly the most 



148 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

swiftly of any bird I have ever seen. They shoot like a 
bolt from tree to tree. I have noticed three sj^ecies, one 
very small, green, and a great pet; another like him, but 
larger; the third larger still, green, but with scarlet 
about his head and bill. I have seen two or three great 
flocks of paroquets, at which times their screaming 
was almost enough to deafen one. From the cars I saw 
a grain-stack literally green with them, but the roar of 
the train hindered my hearing their noise. Frequently 
a native gentleman going on the cars will have two or 
three white parrots taken along with his luggage, kept 
in charge of a servant, and chained to their perches. 

Of the pigeons I have noticed three s^Decies. One, of 
which I have seen but a few specimens, is almost as 
large as our common wood-pigeon of the United States ; 
the others are both smaller. The most common of these 
is a small one, much like the Carolina dove of the 
southern and central United States. This one is some- 
what lighter, with more delicate tints in the color, a 
part of them pinkish and soft as the shading of a sea- 
shell. They afford delicious bits of eating, as I can at- 
test by those I shot during my stay at Bareilly. 

I cannot tell much of the quails and partridges, though 
I have seen many different ones, for the sight has been 
but a hurried one from the cars while passing. A kind 
noticed several times has a bronze or old gold colored 
back, a wide, long tail, the two combined making it an 
elegant object as it would sedately walk away from the 
railway. But I especially want to tell of one. It was 
among the foot-hills of the Himalayas toward Kaini 
Tal, in the road, as three of us were riding horseback. 
They had told me of the jungle fowl, generally con- 
sidered the wild progenitor of our common barn-yard 
fowl, and there one of the cocks stood in the road, look- 



THE BIRDS OF INDIA. 149 

ing almost exactly like our American game-cock, slim, 
bronze and black, and rusty red, with four long arching 
blue-black tail-feathers. I could easily have thought 
him belonging to some of the villagers not far away. 

Up among the same hills I saw a blue jay that was a 
magnificent fellow, shaped and colored much like our 
own, but with two variegated tail-feathers full fourteen 
inches long. Such a bird hopping through the branches 
of the trees was a thing of beauty. A treepie, related 
to the magpie, seen on the plains here, is hardly less a 
brilliant sight, being of similar size to the jay, with long 
tail, and with colors of black, white, nankeen, and gray. 
The magpies are an attractive group from their number 
and striking party-colored plumage. 

Every one reading Eastern books or stories of trav- 
els hears of the bulbul. I did not get a sight of these 
till I had been a month in India. Then at Lucknow, 
among the beautiful trees in the Residency Park, where 
the British during the Sepoy rebellion held out so suc- 
cessfully, I saw the common bulbul and the red-whis- 
kered one the same morning. The note of this so-called 
Indian nightingale is by no means as fine as that of 
several American birds — say the bobolink, mocking- 
bird, and the thrush. But he is a pretty fellow. He is 
of the size and shape of the bluebird, has a black head 
with a pretty tuft on it, a brown back, a gray -mottled 
belly, tail white-tipped, the under tail-coverts being a 
bright scarlet. The red-whiskered bulbul is larger, like 
the other in shape and top-knot, but has more scarlet 
below and a large blotch of it on each side of his 
head. 

It seemed to me a great change from the fighting and 
struggle going on in 1857 at the Residency to the hun- 
dreds of pretty songsters all over the grounds and 



150 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

among the trees, shrubs, flowers, and old ruins. I saw 
the same morning for the first time a honey-bird, a 
most iridescent fellow, hanging about the flowers 
somewhat like the humming-birds, with which it is 
closely connected. Its bill, which it wiped on one side 
and the other of a limb on which it was sitting, was 
long and slender. 

The hoopoe is another of the fine-looking birds of 
India. It frequents the ground, probing holes with its 
long, curved bill in search of insects and worms for 
food. The tall tuft on its head, the variegated color of 
its plumage — brown, white, mottled, and copper- col- 
ored — serve to make it an attractive bird. It is quite 
tame, so I could approach close to it in the gardens. 

The vast number, the strange species, the tame habits 
of the Indian birds fascinate one used to collecting in 
America. 






I 



AT THE NORTH INDIA CONFERENCE. 151 



LETTER XX. 

AT THE NORTH INDIA CONFERENCE. 

Through the kindness of Dr. and Mrs. E. W. Par- 
ker it was my privilege to stay quietly at the historic 
city of Bareilly during the session of 1888 as an inter- 
ested observer. Bishop Thoburn was present after his 
long and eventful stay in America, entering here upon 
old territory, but on new duties. It was his first 
Conference as bishop, but the work of presiding was 
not new, since he had several times been president of the 
India Conferences. 

They gave him a reception Tuesday night, at which a 
church full of eager listeners waited to hear what he 
would say. Dr. Waugh and other missionaries spoke 
hearty words of welcome ; so did one of the native 
preachers, Hiram L. Cutting. The last said his heart 
was filled to overflowing with thankfulness that they 
now had a bishop of their own in India, and that this 
was Thoburn. He was a good representative of the 
native sentiment. 

In response to these unanimous words of welcome 
from natives and Americans the bishop spoke most 
wisely. He recounted the peculiar providences that 
had led to his present onerous responsibilities, and 
urged that he would use his new office in serving the 
brethren and the Church. If the new missionary bishop 
is always so much in the spirit of the Master's teachings, 
and if the suggestions of his course are always thus car- 



Ir52 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSJA. 

ried out, the Church, whose eyes are earnestly directed 
upon this new venture, can well congratulate itself upon 
its election of this man to the episcopacy. His presid- 
ing has been as gentle and unassuming as his reception 
speech. 

When the fraternal delegate from the Presbyterian 
Mission to the Conference wished that the churches of 
India might become one even in name, the bishop re- 
sponded that " as denominations we get closer to- 
gether, not by discussing differences, but on our knees." 

At the " after-tea " prayer-meetings the clear, simple 
manner in which the bishop presented the ways and 
needs of high attainments in the religious life was most 
pleasing. There is a necessity at home, of course, to be 
■filled with the Holy Spirit, his joy, power, and wisdom; 
but when missionaries stand confronting such gigantic 
systems as they do here, and think that it is their work 
to supplant these wdth the teachings of the Bible, they 
are in fullest need of all those things that come alone 
through God's indwelling. 

The recruits for the India work and the former mission- 
aries returning made quite an array, seventeen together; 
but of these only two were men. These two men, as 
Bishop Thoburn showed some time ago in the Western 
Christian Advocate, were all he could secure out of about 
a hundred who, on his issuing a public call, offered to go. 
Many were rejected by the physicians, either on their 
own account or that of their wives; others were not pre- 
pared in their education ; family complications hin- 
dered others; a few backed out, and so on, till two — 
think of it, ye men of American Methodism ! — tioo men 
and ffteen loomen were here at Conference as a fresh 
offering freely laid upon the altar to do God's work for 
Methodism in India! 



AT TEE NORTH INDIA CONFERENCE. 158 

I have been declaring to my parishioners at home that 
Metliodism, from the number of young men and women 
standing ready to go, could, in a year or two, send a 
thousand new missionaries into the foreign work, if 
only the money could be had. But I was wrong. I 
humbly confess it to those w^ho heard me. The men in 
all the millions of Methodism cannot be found! But 
the women can be found, it seems. Fifteen to two! 
God bless the Methodist women ! It is reported that 
the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society never lacks 
those ready and prepared to go. 1 hope this ratio is not 
a fair per cent. ; it cannot be. There are certainly 
many young men in America who have for India the 
spirit which thirty years ago sent out Parker, Baume, 
Thoburn, Waugh, and others. Of the eleven who came 
to India in 1859 six have gone home to heaven, and all 
of the other five — Dr. Parker and wife, Thoburn, 
Waugh, and Baume — were here at the Conference this 
year. What a record! 

And these older missionaries are now pleading for 
men to come here and stay. One remaining only 
three or five years barely gets efficient in that time, 
so that his valuable services are lost if he goes home. 
The climate drives a few home in a hurry, and 
some that return do not come to stay, but simply re- 
main a while and then go back. If the mission author- 
ities can possibly find men who will devote them- 
selves for life to mission work they will do most 
wisely. In a few years the present Nestors of India 
Methodism must lay down the burden, and while a few 
others of wide experience and tried usefulness are 
here aiding them not enough of younger men are 
staying to meet the prospective enlargement of the 
work some years ahead. So the cry goes up to the 



154 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA, 

Mission Rooms, " Send us men who will stay their life- 
time I " 

It was a first-class inspiration to hear the presiding 
elders' reports. Uj) among the foot-hills of the mighty 
Himalayas, and among the aboriginal Turanians in the 
dense jungles, where only these very men can live in the 
summer heat, on the rich broad jDlains of the North-west 
Provinces, in the mud villages, in the great cities, along 
both banks of the sacred Jumna and more sacred 
Ganges, the work is pushing, growing, succeeding. 
Like a conquering general's order for an advance to be 
made all along the line, it seems the great Captain has 
given orders to the missionaries of India, and the shout 
of victory goes up every-where. 

I wonder if Dr. Parker's Rohilcund District is not the 
banner district in all Methodism this year in the number 
of baptisms? Look at the returns — 1,457. One man 
alone. Dr. Wilson, baptized 450. Dr. Parker says : 
" Such is the success that on my district three times as 
many could have been baptized had not the mission- 
aries made it a rule to teach the seekers the great 
truths of Christianity thoroughly before baptizing 
them." On every district and station are success and 
enlargement. Indeed, every American missionary in 
charge of a station is really a presiding elder, for he has 
from a dozen to forty native preachers and teachers 
carrying on the work in all parts of the cities and among 
the scattered villages. 

It transpired in the report on self-support and the 
important discussion which followed that only a small 
amount per capita can be secured from the people. 
This is not to be wondered at when it is recalled that 
our work is largely among the poor people; and in India 
this means volumes. It means families of three or five 



AT THE NORTH INDIA CONFERENCE. 155 

who live on four or six rupees a month — that is, one 
dollar and a half or two dollars. They told of a man 
with three children who entered into contract to receive 
for his work five rupees for three months, whose wife 
by spinning could earn seven eighths of one rupee a 
month, and was permitted to catch the dripping from 
some sugar-barrels and also pull some edible weeds from 
a grain field. That family lives on less than one dollar 
a month. Of course the living is much cheaper here 
than in America, but this sura furnishes only the barest 
necessities of life. Little from such a family can be 
expected. This question is a great one, and our mission- 
aries are wrestling hard with it. Still, in both native 
and European work there was raised during the year 
for all purposes the very fine sum of 109,697 rupees. 

A feature at Bareilly unique to me was the Woman's 
Conference. It was my privilege to attend one day, 
and the reports rendered by these earnest women of the 
work done in schools, hospitals, zenanas, orphanages, 
and in other places was most fascinating. Defeats 
mingled with victories, but the latter predominated. 
They have here regular sessions, receiving reports, laying 
out plans of work, examining classes both of American 
and native women — of the former even the wives of the 
missionaries that are not under direction of the Woman's 
Foreign Missionary Society. Their reports are printed in 
the Conference Minutes. The new scheme of deacon- 
esses is to be tried, with much hope embodied in it for 
India, such homes having already been started at Cal- 
cutta, Muttra, and Lucknow. 

The school results are among the most promising in 
the mission field. There are 408 in the North India 
Conference, including those for boys and girls, native 
and European, with over 16,000 pupils. These are all 



156 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

the way from letter-learning to college classes. Each 
school is a center for direct or indirect evangelistic ac- 
tivity. In all of them the great truths of Christianity 
are taught, and as many of the children are from non- 
Christian families they are constantly influenced toward 
the truth. Not all of them will be led to Christ, of 
course, but good is done in giving them the beginnings 
of an education; they become acquainted with Western 
thought and spirit that is opposed to idolatry, while 
many of them become Christians. Connected with al- 
most every day-school is a Sunday-school, where nearly 
all these children are taught the truth an hour or two 
every Sunday. The missionaries feel they have some 
claim on all these pupils, and the good seed is certain to 
produce fruit. The recent purchase of a splendid new 
building in a beautiful location at Naini Tal for the 
boys' school at a cost of 52,000 rupees and raising it to 
the grade of a high school ; the decision to proceed to 
the erection of the new college buildings at Lucknow, 
as well as other positive advances in this field, show 
rapid growth and independent spirit. 

The Sunday-school report also showed magnificent 
advance. During the year there has been organized an 
increase of 109 schools, making the whole number 703, 
with 26,585 pupils — a gain of 2,672 during the year. 
Of this increase 1,544 were rated as Christian children. 
Many of the converts were gathered from these schools. 
If a year's report shows a tendency, the trend toward 
schools in which both sexes are present is strong, as of 
the 109 new schools 57 are mixed ; while another pointer 
is that 1,032 non-Christian girls, but only 96 non-Chris- 
tian boys, were among the gain. I saw some of these 
native Sunday-schools — not the ones alone in chapels 
and school-rooms — but those under trees or in mud 



AT THE NORTH INDIA CONFERENCE. 157 

huts, and I do confess that they were a wonder and an 
inspiration to me. Such eagerness to learn, such swarms 
of them as came, such unique appearance in face, dress, 
and customs, would have created a sensation at Plain- 
field, N. J. 

The statistical reports, like those of the Sunday- 
school, were enough to cause joy and shouting. The 
whole number of communicants is 7,974 — a gain during 
the year of 1,924, with 1,952 baptisms, 520 more than 
last year. They say that such a per cent, of gain all 
around the earthwide Methodism would have added 
200,000 to our Church last year. Missions pay. 

A characteristic incident occurred one day. In a vil- 
lage about twelve miles out of Bareilly some of the 
Hindus beat one of our teachers — not an uncommon 
occurrence. These men were caught at it by the police, 
so that the government had a case against the offenders. 
But it was optional with our people whether the prose- 
cution should proceed to a fine and six months in jail. 
It having occurred on Dr. Parker's district, he advised, 
as they all came to him, the culprits begging mercy and 
promising to treat the teachers well hereafter, that they 
should be brought before the Conference, allowed to 
make their confession, and let go. 

So, for the moral and prudential effect of the thing, 
they came before the bishop, five stalwart, fine-looking 
natives, made their confession, and the kind-hearted 
bishop said gentle, forgiving words, shaking hands 
with each one. By a quick motion one kissed his hand, 
and another said, " You are our father and mother " — 
one of the highest native compliments. All showed 
complete gratitude. It was a time and place for mani- 
festing Christian feeling. 

It was not strange that these missionaries in the love- 



158 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

feast Sunday morning, and at other times, should exult 
at the growth of this mission. Just thirt}^ years ago 
eleven peo^^le gathered at Lucknow, constituting the 
working corps; now, of natives and Americans, there 
were more than a hundred. Then there was not a na- 
tive convert, now thousands. Then they had two 
native helpers — Joel, and another given them by the 
Presbyterians; now tliere are hundreds. In that Con- 
ference, as in this, Baume, Thoburn, Waugh, Dr. Par- 
ker, and Mrs. Parker took part. Their exultation was, 
" What hath God wrought ! " 

At the two services Sunday nineteen men were or- 
dained, twelve to the office of deacon and seven to that 
of elder, all natives. It was profoundly impressive. 
God is raising up a great body of workers here. These 
men have been tried for several years, according to the 
purpose of our missionaries, who are very eager to test 
well those they put into orders before granting ordina- 
tion. It is worthy of note, and may be an assurance 
to people at home, that men raised up through our 
schools here from the lowest castes are grand workers. 
Indeed, many of the Americans claim that caste has 
not Adtiated the intellect of these people, but that 
the lowest caste men are the equal of the high caste 
men. As the bishop laid his hands on these men, his 
first duty of this kind, he says his vision reached out 
till he saw millions instead of thousands coming to 
Christ in India. 

I hear from missionaries, from government officials 
here a life-time, and others, that the abject, senseless 
spirit of idolatry is departing, that a return to the older 
purity of Hindu worship is apparent, and that the power 
of mission work is greater and grander than ever be- 
fore. 



I 



AT THE NORTH INDIA CONFERENCE. 159 

The Conference is held in midwinter. When New 
England people in furs are taking sleigh-rides, here 
from the gardens and yards they cut great banks of 
roses, bignonia, bale, and other flowers to enliven the 
Conference rooms. It looks strange to a Yankee. 



160 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 



LETTER XXI. 

THE NATIVE RACES OP INDIA. 

India presents in its races a complete world. The 
Bible tells us of three great divisions of Noah's sons, 
Shem, Ham, Japheth. Modern science confirms the 
book at this point, as at many others, giving us the 
same three great races, the Semitic, Turanian, Aryan. 
All these three races are well represented among the 
natives of this country, not to speak of the modern influx 
of Europeans since the conquest of India by the British. 
There is the lordly Briton, who is much inclined savagely 
to despise the effeminate natives, and I learned, as never 
before, the meaning of " the iron heel of the proud, op- 
pressor." The natives fear the power and the personal 
presence of the Westerners, regarding all white-faced 
strangers, until they learn otherwise, as belonging to 
this dreaded nation. While among the crowd at the 
bathing ghats on the banks of the Ganges at Benares I 
heard the Mohammedan guide tell the people I was an 
American, and from that time I could plainly see that 
they regarded me with less servility and fear than 
before. Still, educated Hindus told me that under 
British rule their people are the best off they have been 
since the Mohammedan conquest, and I could believe it. 

These three great races have each at different epochs 
had more or less complete domination of India. The 
Semitic race is represented by forty or fifty millions of 
Mohammedans, the Arabs, Persians, Afghans, and the 



THE NATIVE RACES OF INDIA. 161 

like, who in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries 
pushed the conquests of Islam beyond the desert 
regions of Afghanistan into the vastly rich valleys of 
the Indus and Ganges, and to the Deccan. Their con- 
quests were strenuously opposed by the native Hindu 
kingdoms, but the superior strength and energy of this 
new race, the force given their advance by their great 
religious fanaticism, the deterioration of their opposers 
and factions among them, conspired with other things 
to enable them to extend their dominions to the Hima- 
layas and the Indian Ocean. They generally became 
wise administrators of affairs, did not exterminate the 
conquered peoples, nor did they attempt to convert by 
the sw^ord, relying rather on peaceful modes of propa- 
gating their faith. The result was that the Aryan 
Hindus changed in but small numbers from Brahman- 
ism to Islam. This Semitic race is easily seen by a 
traveler in India to be taller in form, with thinner 
features, more aquiline noses, less obsequious, and more 
restless under the British yoke. Several of the native 
States remaining are the kingdoms established by this 
race, and left practically intact by the British. 

Going back in history, possibly to fifteen hundred 
years before the Christian era, beyond any authentic 
data, indeed, regarding it, we find the second of these 
great races, the Aryans coming into India, doubtless 
through the northwestern passes by which the Moham- 
medans entered. This race, the Hindus, is a section of 
that race represented to Western history by the Greeks, 
Romans, Celts, Teutons, and Slavs. Philology and 
other evidences prove conclusively that the brown 
Hindus of India are of the same race as their recent 
conquerors, the Anglo-Saxons. Long separation of 
each section from the parent stem has caused great 
11 



162 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

differences in complexion, physiognomy, habits, and 
speech, but once their ancestors were the same people in 
the central highlands of Asia, from whence part emi- 
grated north-westward, the other south-eastward. It 
seems as though it must be impossible that these slen- 
der, effeminate, brown people had the same ancestors as 
the white-skinned, large, strong-limbed, progressive 
races of the West, but it is settled beyond all cavil to be 
the fact. The Hindus have had a wonderful history in 
this country. The account preserved by their own and 
histories of other peoples show this fact. Persian and 
Macedonian conquerors had reached them before the 
Mohammedan came. Their literature, the Vedas, the 
Mahabarata, Ramayana, and other books, show their 
mental force and fertility. The kingdoms they set up 
were many of them of imposing proportions, their laws 
most extensive, their religion, rites, and systems most 
elaborate, their industrial attainments among the very 
foremost in the world in their epoch. 

But the Hindus were not the first inhabitants of 
India. Before them the Turanians w^ere here. As the 
former came in they found the latter already thronging 
the rich valleys of the great rivers and the extended 
plains. Their civilization was inferior to that of the 
Aryans, and their power also, hence they could not 
stand before the invaders. The subsequent liistory of 
these people shows that many were reduced to a low 
condition of servile labor; others were driven to the 
hills and jungles where they still subsist, and still others 
retained throughout all the changes of India a certain 
autonomous condition, and can be found to-day as 
nations or peoples. Such is the kingdom of Xepaul; 
the nations of Tamils, Telugus, Kanarese, and others. 
History also gives glimpses of considerable kingdoms of 



THE NATIVE RAGES OF INDIA. 163 

this race that arose long after the Hindu conquest. 
Beraa, a native hero of the King Arthur type, has many 
monuments of his greatness about Bijnour and Morada- 
bad, mounds, tanks, and the like. The low-caste people 
retain many of these traditions and legends, though the 
Hindus have always tried to blacken his character as one 
neglecting Brahman rites and despising caste. On his 
conquering large sections of the country he proclaimed 
that no worship should be performed, no oblations 
offered to, and no gifts bestowed on, the Brahmans. 
A Sudra monarch was reigning in the seventh century 
when the Chinese traveler Hwen Thsang visited Man- 
da war. About the same epoch a lot of herdsmen rose 
to eminence about Bareilly, whose reservoirs for caring 
for their cattle still remain. They are said to have 
had a city extending seven miles along the Ramgunga. 
Three or four hundred years later, in the eleventh cent- 
ury, the aboriginal tribes of the same locality asserted 
their independence, and for four or five centuries main- 
tained by their bravery and thek* strongholds their 
claim to be a distinct people. 

Special interest attaches itself to these people among 
missionary circles, for the most successful work done in 
Christianizing the natives is among them. This is rec- 
ognized not only by the earnest missionaries in the 
field, but by as high an historical and ethnological 
authority as Sir W. W. Hunter. 

In the older writings of the Hindus these people are 
rated as dogs, slaves, outcasts. They are the Sudras— 
the Dasyus, whom the lordly race that has conquered 
them is to domineer and despise. To them is remanded 
the most menial kinds of toil ; they are to be scaven- 
gers, sweepers, farmers, flayers of dead animals, leather- 
workers, nnd the like, the kinds of toil that would most 



164 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

deeply degrade an Aryan-Hindu. These thus degraded 
have been counted in the lowest caste in the Brahman 
system. Their relation to the higher castes, and to the 
Hindu gods, even on their conversion to that faith, was 
hopeless and impossible of improvement. 

Of those that fled to the mountains the Bhils of West 
India furnish a good example. They live in the Ara- 
valli Mountains, and are often spoken of still as Avild 
men. They are born robbers, and only a few days be- 
fore I passed from Bombay to Delhi on the cars they 
made a partially successful attempt to wreck and rob a 
train on the road over which I passed. They live mostly 
by the chase and robbery, and of late British law is 
reaching them, causing them in some instances better to 
recognize the claims of others. Even yet some of them 
will not meet the tax-collector, but when he comes near 
their jungle-retreats, on his letting them know by beat- 
ing a drum that the time has come for them to pay their 
dues, they wait till he has gone away, then bring their 
tribute in the rude products of their gardens and jun- 
gles, laying it where the collector has been, and, retiring 
again within their fastnesses, let him come in peace to 
carry it away. Some of them are skillful archers, 
shooting with great force by lying on their backs and 
bending the bow by the aid of their two feet. Most of 
them now have fire-arms, though others have their prim- 
itive weapons. I saw in the native State of Rajputana 
some armed with bows instead of guns. Others carried 
a rude sword in a scabbard hung over their shoulders. 

But all are not so wild as the Bhils. In the great 
jungles skirting the Himalayas, which are so malarious 
that no European can live in them, save during a few 
weeks of the winter, and where even the Hindu cannot 
endure the climate, these old tribes live in perfect im- 



THE NATIVE RACES OF INDIA. 165 

munity from fevers. They were doubtless driven there 
by the Aryan hivaders, and are now quiet villagers. 
They build their huts ten or a dozen feet from the 
ground on posts to protect themselves from the tigers 
and leopards that infest those awful jungles. I saw 
some of these huts beside the railroad from Bareilly to 
Huldwanee. In the Himalayas they are also quiet vil- 
lagers, tilling the soil, making rude cloth, doing some 
mining of copper and iron, and in the malarious valleys, 
which sometimes rival the jungles, are free from the 
fevers that attack all others. They seem to have lived 
so long in such a deadly atmosphere as not to be affected 
by it. 

The most compacted and unchanged of this Turanian 
race persist in considerable nations in South India, the 
Tamils, Telugus, and Kanarese. It is estimated by 
the British authorities that there are nine millions of 
the Kanarese, twelve millions of the Telugus, and six- 
teen millions of the Tamils. Being pressed back into 
the hills and mountains, they have been influenced less 
than others by their conquering neighbors and enabled 
to retain more of their race characteristics. These and 
some kindred tribes represent the family of languages 
that philologists call the Dravidian. It shows only re- 
mote relationship to the other two Indian groups of the 
Turanian speech, which some students have called the 
Kalarian and Thibeto-Burman. The people speaking 
these last two dialects doubtless entered India by the 
north-eastern passes of the Himalayas, while those 
speaking the Dravidian by the north-western passes of 
the Hindu-Kush. 

Not only are they found in the jungles, spurs of the 
Himalayas, and in compact peoples, but multitudes are 
found in just the condition to which the Sanskrit writ- 



166 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

ers assigned them long before the Christian era. They 
are the Sudras — the men of work, considered so vile 
and low as not to have any caste. As sweepers, farm- 
ers, and the like they have lived through long genera- 
tions in the condition given them by the inexorable 
laws of conquest, religion, custom, and lawgivers; pa- 
tient, hopeful, enduring, but now with a future opening 
to them through Christianity. 

Many of these people have accepted the Hindu re- 
ligion, and in turn have doubtless engrafted some points 
of their earlier cult upon the Brahman system. The 
efforts made by the Brahmans to convert them to their 
own faith seem to have been thus far only moderately 
successful. In a state of partial neglect those who 
have been considered worshipers of the Brahman gods 
have kept much of their ancient faith, hence do not 
present a pure phase of the Hindu cult. In other in- 
stances, while in contact with their conquerors all these 
long generations, living with them as their servants, 
doing their hard drudgery, and subject to all the allure- 
ments to change to the faith of their conquerors, these 
strange people have not become Hinduized, but, retain- 
ing the worship of their own race-gods, are now counted 
as " devil- worshipers." It is the custom, history shows 
us, for conquering peoples of another faith to denom- 
inate the gods of their vassals as mere devils. So the 
Roman missionaries who evangelized our Anglo-Saxon 
ancestors called the Teutonic gods, Woden, Thor, 
Freya, and others. The Spanish conquerors of Mexico 
in the same way regarded the gods of the Aztecs and 
Toltecs. Here in India it is only the old story of the 
dominant race and religion. 

I was half inclined to think that if I were coHipelled 
to worship the deities of either the Hindu or the Tura- 



THE NATIVE RACES OF INDIA. 167 

nian tribes of India I should choose the latter cult in 
preference to the former, for in a broad sense the 
Turanians are nature-worshipers. The forces of nature, 
the rain and rivers, tlie flowers and trees, the birds and 
beasts, are surely less degrading to the nobility in 
human character than many of the teachings of the 
Brahman faith, with their infamous emblems, their 
spirit and practice in the field of human sympathy and 
morals. These aboriginal tribes are very religious in 
their way. Vast varieties of charms, amulets, magic, 
are used by them. With the bodies of the dead they 
bury implements, utensils, and weapons for use in the 
world beyond, showing by this a vivid hope of immor- 
tality, and they make offerings to the spirits of de- 
parted ones, with many strange and intricate rites. 
Most of these tribes, especially those of the jungles and 
hills, down to modern times, offered human sacrifices. 
It is a notion of some, doubtless a memory of their 
migration from that direction, and with a hope of re- 
turning, to bury their dead with the feet northward. 
They seem less bigoted than the Hindus, and for this, 
and not being so intrenched in caste and rigid exclu- 
siveness, are found to be more accessible to the teach- 
ings of Christianity than any other race in India. The 
wonderful work done among the Telugus by the Bap- 
tists can be better understood when it is known that 
they are one of those almost autonomous nations. So of 
the Karens of Burma, an allied tribe. The surprising 
influx to our Church from the low castes of the North 
India Conference, especially on the Moradab.id District, 
can be explained in the same way. The missionaries 
are finding that these people will listen to and accept 
the Gospel ; hence they turn to them. 

The physical aspects of this race vary from those of 



168 A WINTER JN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

some Mongolian characteristics among the Indian slopes 
of the Himalayas to those of many negroloid character- 
istics of the plains. Still some of the mountaineers, as 
the Paharis above Almorah, are much less brown than 
the Hindus of the lowlands. They are a sturdier race 
physically than the Hindus, possibly owing to their 
having done more manual labor than those through the 
passing centuries. Some of them, especially of the 
Mongolian type, have a remarkable development of the 
calves of the legs, in this making a curious contrast to 
the thin legs of the Hindus. Often they develop great 
strength as porters, wharfmen, and at other kinds of 
labor requiring muscular power. Their disposition is 
usually kind and gentle, and they make most faithful fol- 
lowers. In war they have proved themselves of brave 
and spirited disposition. They have been much used by 
the British as soldiers, the Sepoys of Clive and Coote 
being mostly of these people. Long after the dreadful 
Sepoy rebellion none but these aboriginal people, who re- 
mained true to the British during that fateful time, 
were permitted to enter the military service of the gov- 
ernment, though of late any of the natives may enlist. 
The native regiments that did not mutiny in that strug- 
gle were Turanian, the Goorkhas, Sikhs, and others justly 
renowned for their bravery. When Disraeli startled 
Europe by bringing a contingent of Indian troops to 
the English stations of the Mediterranean to enforce 
his demand that the matters about Constantinople be 
settled as British diplomacy saw best, those troops were 
not Aryan-Hindus, nor Semitic Mohammedans, but Tu- 
ranian soldiers, the aboriginal tribes of India. 



BENARES, THE HOLY CITY OF THE HINDUS. 169 



LETTER XXII. 

BENARES, THE HOLY CITY OP THE HINDUS. 

A RUN of three hundred and fifty miles from Bareilly 
to Benares has brought two of us, Ernest Badley, son of 
the Rev. Dr. Badley, and myself, to this city of the 
saints. Of course one who visits India at all must see 
this place. Ernest, being familiar with the vernacular, 
is a valuable companion, as well as a pleasant one on 
his own account. A guide who could speak English 
was engaged and consulted as to the sight-seeing, a 
ghari was hired, and an hour or two after our arrival 
we were off for the banks of the sacred Ganges. The 
hotel is in the English quarter or cantonment, so that 
we secured a charming ride of nearly four miles through 
the native streets and bazars, seeing in them the cease- 
lessly interesting sights of an Indian city. A short dis- 
tance from the river's edge we left the carriage, making 
our way to the water down a steep bank among piles 
of rocks, wood, and other obstructions, to find boats 
and queer craft of one kind and another moored to the 
shore in crowded confusion, among platforms for bath- 
ing, stone steps, cells of fakirs, drying clothes, nearly 
nude men and only a little less uncovered women, all 
of them worshiping by their peculiar methods, or vocif- 
erously begging backsheesh of us Americans. 

Securing a boat for us two large enough to carry at 
least two yoke of oxen, with an upper deck where the 
guide sat with us, to point out the sights, with the 



170 A WINTER IN INDIA AND 2IALAYSIA. 

rowers below, we pushed out into the stream, and then 
were able to look back on the banks. Up and down for 
nearly a mile there were the most unique, most strange 
and lively religious scenes I liave ever witnessed. It 
was one of the fifty feast-days of the year, and the 
sight presented at eleven o'clock was not lacking the 
activity and vividness that usually characterizes it only 
at early morning. These banks, up which the water 
must rise thirty or fifty feet at the rainy season, are 
mostly paved with a succession of stone steps, coming 
down from the foundation of temples, palaces, and build- 
ings above to the water's edge and continuing even be- 
low that. On these steps hundreds were bathing, only 
high caste people here, while those of low caste could 
bathe along the sandy shores which could be seen far- 
ther down the river. Priests, sleek, fat, their heads 
mostly shaven, were every- where among the bathers, 
directing their ablutions, reading from their sacred 
books, selling flowers and sweets for offerings to the 
river, in their way doing faithfully the offices of their 
order. 

Soon the boat came to the burning ghat, and as this 
was the first time I had seen bodies thus being disposed 
of I had the steersman fasten up so we could see the 
affair to our heart's content. One dead body, wrapped 
in white cloth, smeared with red paint or ochre, lay with 
its feet bathed in the water of the river, awaiting its 
time for burning. The priests tramped over it while 
at their duties as though it was only a log. Close be- 
side this one was another body that had just been laid 
on the pyre, the wood piled up cob-house fashion three 
feet high and about six feet long and wide. As we 
came one was touching the body with the sacred 23aint, 
then a white cloth was spread over it, which was also 



BENARES, THE HOLY CITY OF THE HINDUS. 171 

smeared with the red paint. Then other sticks of wood 
were laid on the body, one way and other, until enough 
was put upon the pile to consume it. When all was 
ready the priest in charge, taking a brand on a handful 
of dried grass from the tire burning at another pyre, 
ran twice around this pile with the flaming bundle, and 
as he dropped it another priest, with a handful of dried 
grass, lighting it at this fire, stuffed it into the funeral 
pyre, which was quickly ablaze. To hurry the burning 
the priest poured some kind of oil, possibly clarified 
butter, on it. Just above this one was another in full blaze 
as we came up. Through the flame and smoke I could 
see the partly consumed body, arms, skull, ribs, and 
other parts. Still another was nearly burned up, at which 
one of the priests was working, crowding the brands and 
the disjointed members together with a long bam- 
boo pole. When the fire got so low that it could not 
burn the fragments any more he pulled the crisped 
bent trunk out of the coals and roughly pushed it with 
the bamboo stick into the water of the sacred Ganges, 
where, food for fishes and alligators, it sank out of sight. 
Several other bodies in different stages of consump- 
tion were burning here and there on the steep banks; 
on one side, overlooking it all, an old priest, sitting 
on his haunches, evidently had charge of the proceed- 
ings, for he gave directions every now and then in a 
loud voice. A few idle spectators, possibly the friends 
of the dead, also sat on their haunches near by, but 
there was no sign of mourning. I noticed, as an at- 
tendant brought earthen jars of water to quench the 
dying embers of those fires from which the charred re- 
mains had been removed, that he approached the fires 
by backing toward them; then one of the priests, coming 
in front of the water-carrier, would, by a sudden push, 



172 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

throw the jar and water from his head upon the tire, 
breaking the jar and spilling the water at the same time. 
I judged it must be some symbolic act, though why 
they did so the guide could not tell. 

The scenes at the bathing ghats were exceedingly in- 
teresting. We watched them for hours. Little plat- 
forms just above the water, built of bamboo, were here 
and there thrust out over the river, the two planks com- 
posing the floor being a little space apart, between 
which the bathers could wash themselves or their 
clothing. For these people seem to believe Wesley's 
saying, that cleanliness is next to godliness, though 
never having heard of it ; more, their cleanliness is 
a part of godliness, since to wash and dry their clothing 
at the sacred river is a part of their worship. So on 
that day rich Hindus, men of rank and ofiice, and gen- 
tlewomen in rich clothing, would wash their garments 
and hang them in the light breeze to dry. The grown 
people took the whole proceedings in a grave enough 
way, but some of the boys made it a gala time by 
jumping in, diving, swimming, and pushing one another 
off into the water. Occasionally a man standing to bis 
middle in water would quickly dip himself three times 
fully under the muddy tide. Many had baskets and 
bundles of flowers, sweets, leaves, twigs, grasses, and the 
like, and were casting them one by one upon the water, so 
that the slow current was carrying away a continuous 
lot of these things spread upon its surface. At one 
place a woman, squatting beside a large pile of yellow 
marigolds, was casting them in, one by one, as a priest 
stood there evidently reciting from some of the sacred 
books. Another woman, who stood in the water above 
her knees, having bathed her face, joined her hands in 
adoration toward the sun. Several times I saw the peo- 



BENARES, THE HOLT CITY OF THE HINDUS. 173 

pie thus pray to the sun. They would dip up some of 
the water in their hands, and by a peculiar process 
squirt it out through their fingers; while others would 
take the filthy stuff iu their mouths, either to drink it 
or squirt it away. 

Along the very brink of the water little stone and 
brick shrines or cells would have sitting in them a fakir 
or priest, though many were vacant. In the great tem- 
ple far up the bank some kind of worship was going on, 
as we could hear rude music and strange sounds from 
them. These temples and palaces were usually built, 
the guide said, by some rich rajah or prince, making a 
place for him to occupy for the time being, as he came 
here for worship. Above one built by the king of 
Nepaul were immense brazen glistening fixtures of 
some import or other that I could not learn. Bells here 
and there were hung up that would be tapped from the 
outer edge, not swung to and fro as we ring them. 
Very few of these temples or palaces are of architect- 
ural beauty. Among them was a Mohammedan mosque 
built by Araunzebe, as though these people meant to 
force their belief upon their former subjects, its minaret 
tall and graceful. Many of these buildings are in par- 
tial decay, others have their foundations undermined by 
the river, so they are leaning or tumbling down. Are 
they, like their system, touched with final decay and 
collapse ? 

Here and there along the banks were platforms built 
of brick and mortar six or ten feet wide, and as high, 
on which a fakir would sit reading from his sacred 
books to such as would care to listen, his place covered 
with a roof, or sometimes with only a big grass um- 
brella. As we went ashore from the hired boat we 
found ourselves heading a long procession of priests, 



174 A WINTER m INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

beggars, and people, one word at least of their jargon 
being intelligible — " backsheesh ! " One of them fast- 
ened himself to us like a leech, in spite of our strong 
declaration that we needed no guide but the one from 
the hotel. At every point of interest he was on hand 
to give us information. 

We soon found our way to the sacred well or tank, 
the most holy spot of this exceedingly sacred city. It 
is about fifteen feet wide by thirty long, and twenty 
feet deep; is a little way from the edge of the river, and 
at such, a height that high water fills it, and then reced- 
ing' leaves it full. The missionaries called my attention 
to this peculiar holy of holies before I had come here. 
The water yet remaining in the tank was about three 
feet deep, and so filthy that it was green with dirt and 
slime ; yet walking about in this stuff were half a dozen 
priests nearly naked, to receive the flowers and pice of 
the devotees. The surface was well covered with 
flowers, marigolds and bale, in single profusion or in 
wreaths. For a pice or two a priest brought a couple 
of wreaths of the sweet-scented bale flowers for Ernest 
and me. Groups of women stood here and there on 
the lower step by which the water was approached, 
each group attended by a priest who was giving direc- 
tions for the worship and prayers. They Avould drink 
that fetid water, bathe in it, wash their garments in it, 
and cast flowers and sweets on its surface. A favorite 
use of the water was to take some up in the hand and 
let it slowly drij? through the fingers. Some sat or stood 
with strings of sacred beads in their hands which one by 
one they would slip along, calling on their god, " Ram, 
Ram, Ram ! " As I turned from this sight a snake- 
charmer stood behind me with a hand-cage of snakes, 
wanting to show me his cobras. About his shoulders 



BENARES, THE HOLT CITY OF THE HINDUS. 175 

was lying a boa-constrictor full two inches in diameter. 
The guide had told the crowd we were Americans, and 
I could distinguish that word as they repeated it to one 
another. One old fakir was covered from his tall head- 
gear down to his hips and legs with strings of their beads 
composed of fruit-stones that they use for saying 
prayers. It looked like a cuirass of chain-mail. A foot- 
print of Vishnu, as large as that of a baby, in a piece of 
marble, was a cause for demanding backsheesh, as also a 
marble post marking a place specially holy, where a 
beautiful princess long ago performed suttee. The re- 
volting, sensual emblems of Mahadeo every-where 
greeted one on the bases of temples and palaces, on 
shrines, and at particular spots along the banks, the li- 
bations of sacred waters, clarified butter, sweets, and 
ochre showing plainly the wide worship of this dread- 
fully debasing god. 

I wanted at least to bathe my hands in the sacred 
river, so, selecting a ghat that was not crowded, Er- 
nest and I went down to the brink, and, as we would 
do in the Merrimac or Mississippi, washed our hands 
from the dust and grime of traveling. A dozen or two 
of the devotees stood looking at the Christians perform- 
ing what was to them a sacred act, but to us hardly 
more than a noon-day hand-washing. Even the Mo- 
hammedan guide, following suit, dipped up some in 
his hand and splashed it over his face. A fakir close 
by vociferously set up a demand for something, and on 
ray asking the guide what he meant he said the man 
urged that as we had bathed in their sacred river we 
must give him money. I said, " No, no," but he was 
persistent, and, as we walked away, he followed us, 
loudly urging his claim. I told the guide to send him 
away, as I should not pay him any thing, but still he 



176 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

kept on, and quite a crowd collected to see what would 
come of it all. After a while I stopped, putting my 
hand in my pocket, and he rushed close to me for the 
coveted and well-earned money. I stared hard into his 
gleaming eyes, slowly drew out my hand with a single 
pice, and, smiling on the persistent beggar, laid it on 
his open palm. Seeing what it was, and, I think, fully 
appreciating the joke, he turned grinning away, to the 
laughter and loud talk of his fellows. 

From this fascinating locality we went a mile back 
into the city to the region sacred to the worship of the 
cow. After leaving the carriage we walked along nar- 
row, dirty lanes to enter a small court in which was the 
figure of a recumbent bull cut from a single block of 
stone, measuring ten feet in length, four in width, and 
five in height. All about this figure and the court were 
numerous signs of worship, flowers, sweets, garlands, 
and the like. Under an open colonnade was the " Well 
of Knowledge," down which one of the gods had been 
thrown, but his virtues are not enough to keep the 
water sweet. Over the mouth of the deep well a cloth 
is spread to prevent the rice, sweets, and flowers that 
are offered to the god from falling into the water, but 
the success being only partial the smell coming from it 
made me cry, " Faugh ! " A priest keeps a bucket of 
the water fresh drawn for the faithful to drink and get 
cups of it for holy purposes, but we thought we would 
not indulge after the odor had once invaded our nos- 
trils. By looking down into the well one becomes very 
wise. This we did. But if the knowledge obtained is 
as fetid as the smell then it must be like certain doc- 
trines I wot of. About the walks and lanes were em- 
blems of Mahadeo, as well as many living cows, calves, 
ami bulls. The Golden Temple here, while not a large 



BEN'ARES, THE HOLY GTT7 OF THE HINDUS. 177 

one, is immensely rich and ornate, its-dome, towers, and 
columns being covered with gold-leaf and glittering in 
the sun. In the same place is the real " Cow Temple." 
Being foreign unbelievers, we were not permitted to 
enter the sacred place by the regular entrance, though 
possibly our Mohammedan guide was the plague-spot, 
but we could go into a narrow corridor through a low 
door by which the dung from this stable-temple was 
taken out ! This we did, to find one of the strangest 
sights for a place of worship I have ever seen. In the 
temple area, not large but well attended, were some 
altars and other paraphernalia of worship, many devo- 
tees, and several priests. But the strangest of all were 
the cows, calves, and bulls walking about, seeming to 
enjoy their part of the programme, for they were at 
liberty to go to the altars and eat thence the flowers, 
leaves, grasses, sweets, and other things offered, and by 
this had become fat and sleek. Some devotee would 
approach one of these animals and reach out his 
hand toward it, when it would open its mouth to have 
chucked into it fresh flowers or sweets. Water that 
was holy had been poured upon the altars to run over the 
floor, and water that was not holy was over it also, and 
other things, till this precinct of sanctity was as foul 
and filthy as a poorly kept New England cow-stable ; 
yet here was worship ! Far in a recess was a statue 
of " Saturday," the guide said, but later I learned it 
was a statue of Saturn. Why Saturn was here I do 
not know. It was a bright, silvern face hung about 
with wreaths, but with no body at all. One image of 
worship was a woman, and many of the devotees were 
of that sex. A peacock, sacred among the Hindus, 
wandered about among the people and cows. 

Thence we went to the gold-beaters' street, passing 
12 



178 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

that of the brass-workers, to find offered for sale most 
charming work, merely ornamental as well as sacred. 
Into an upper room, along narrowest, darkest passages, 
the guide brought us to find the people at work weav- 
ing their exquisite materials, gold and silver and silk 
brocades and cloth. Giving Ernest and me chairs, the 
native trader sat on his haunches while the attendant 
brought web after web of the beautiful things. One, 
of five yards, cost two hundred rupees. The colors, be- 
sides the gold and silver, were of the brightest blue, 
green, j^urple, brown, red, yellow, and so on. I finally 
bought a short piece of gold and silver trimming, and 
when only one was purchased the quiet trader wanted 
to know of the guide if I would not take more — if 1 did 
not need some more for others of the wives at home ! 
I held up one finger to the sly rogue. 

In spite of the guide's importunities for us to drive 
direct to the hotel for tiffin ancl go to the monkey tem- 
ple the next day, we had the ghari-driver go at once 
to the latter. It is far in the outskirts of the city, and 
on the road we passed one of the famous juggernauts, 
now quietly standing under an open shed. It was 
about a dozen feet each way, and high enough to have 
an upper story, where were seats for the priests and a 
place for the god. Thick wheels supported it, and 
holes were in the front axle for stout ropes to be tied 
for the crowds to draw it. Missionaries tell me that the 
stories of people casting themselves under the wheels 
are far-drawn, arising, doubtless, from accidents, as in 
haste and excitement the great crowds draw the huge 
car through the streets. This peculiar mode of wor- 
ship is falling into desuetude. 

The monkey temple is one of the most noted fanes 
of this famous city. Beside it is a deep, broad tank. 



BENARES, THE HOLY CITY OF THE HINDUS. 179 

with steps leading to it on all sides, like so many of 
these bathing-places, and here a boy having been nearly 
drowned some time during the day the family were all 
at the temple returning devoutest thanks for the favor 
of rescuing him. This temple has extensive grounds, 
trees, and accessory buildings. In front is a corridor 
where each morning a kid is sacrificed, and we saw the 
blood and the instruments of sacrifice where its head 
had been cut off. We gave the guide some pice to buy 
grain and sweets for the monkeys, but only one or two 
of these could be called up from their hiding-places, the 
chill}^ winter air being too severe for them to be hun- 
gry. As we passed the door we handed the waiting 
priest half a. rupee, who in return flung over our hats a 
garland of beautiful flowers, which we wore about the 
temple and home to our hotel. It was a kind of de- 
votement to the god, so we thought we ought to be 
pretty good after all these consignments to the deities 
of Benares. In the temple we could see from a distance 
only, being unbelievers, the holy of holies, in which 
was a figure of Durga, the Pandora of the Hindus, 
since from her, as from the Greek goddess, numberless 
ills have come to the race. 

A couple of magnificent bells hung in the court, 
which, on being struck, gave forth a rich, mellow tone. 
In one part of the grounds stand some grand old tam- 
arind-trees, said to be a thousand years old, able to tell 
strange stories, if they would, of India's mutations. 
One hollow one is said to be the lying-in place of all the 
monkey mothers. Beggars, as usual, followed us with 
their impudent importunities, and one boy ran far along 
beside the ghari, as we went to the hotel, trying to ex- 
tort by his very persistency something from us, but he 
got no pice at all. 



180 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA 7SIA. 



LETTER XXIII. 

THE WORK OF THE A^^OMAN'S FOREIGN MISSIONARY 
SOCIBTY-SCHOOLS-SUND AY-SCHOOLS. 

It is rather a remarkable coincidence that at least 
three mighty forces for the bringing in of Christ's 
kingdom should be correlative — Methodism woman's 
work and the missionary spirit. At Bombay I was in- 
troduced to the representative of the Woman's P^oreign 
Missionary Society as a walking interrogation-point, and 
as I met them I felt willing to ask about this part of 
the church work the same as I did others. Their toil 
in most of its results has been a surprise to me, as was 
that of other dej^artments. It is all better than I had 
surmised, before getting into the field. The mission of 
Methodism is partly to woman, whether she is found in 
America or Asia. Her enfranchisement in Methodism 
began with Wesley's woman leaders and stewards, and 
its highest gift to her is when it admitted her into the 
Central Conference in India as a lay delegate, with all 
the opportunities of work before her which that right 
gives. The chances in all parts of Asia for woman to 
be benefited are vast and deep. It is not to bring ma- 
terial good so much as spiritual benefit, but the good 
done covers woman's whole being — soul and body and 
spirit. 

The work I saw in foreign fields embodies several de- 
partments. The great schools built up in India, Burma, 
and Japan were a joy and wonder to me, who have 



WOMAN'S FOREIGN' MISSIONA R Y SOCIETY. 1 8 1 

always believed in woman since I got well acquainted 
with my mother, sisters, and wife. From these schools 
are going out the enfranchised Christian young women, 
thrusting strange leaven into the social, industrial, in- 
tellectual, and religious life of these heathen countries. 
There is vast difference between woman as a plaything 
or slave and woman as a Christian worker. 

Prominent among the first of these schools I saw was 
the one at Moradabad under the direction of Mrs. Dr. 
E. W. Parker. A hundred and sixty girls were there, 
ranging in age from six to eighteen, pursuing studies 
reaching from primary grade up to those taught in an 
American high school, and some languages of India not 
taught in America. In a broad compound, or yard, the 
buildings are located, put up one story high, of brick, 
narrow, so that fresh air can easily be obtained from 
both ways through the rooms ; earth floors covered 
with mats ; a protecting veranda in front ; one of the 
buildings adapted for recitation-rooms, others for dor- 
mitories, then dining-room, kitchen, and the like. But 
more interesting than the odd buildings that are 
adapted to the needs of Indian people and climate were 
the girls there being taught. As it is partly a high 
school, to which girls come who have studied more or 
less in the primary schools founded here and there all 
over Dr. Parker's large Rohilcund District, these girls 
form a choice body of students. Only the most prom- 
ising ones are brought in from the lower schools, and as 
there is a large number of these schools it can be seen 
that the selection of those to give the advantage of the 
higher schools must be very careful. 

I saw them at study, poring hard over their books 
of English, Urdu, Persian; of reading, spelling, writ- 
ing ; of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, at all of which 



182 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

and in others many become eminently proficient. At a 
chapel service I was present to stand face to face with 
a prophecy and promise that almost drew tears from my 
tough eyes. As in any seminary the teachers sat to- 
gether, the pupils fronting them. A cabinet-organ 
accompanied the singing, a prayer in the vernacular was 
offered, my few words of cheer were translated, and 
they were dismissed to their regular duties. They are 
a brown-faced, bright-eyed lot of girls, decently clad in 
the cheap calico dresses and head-enveloping chuddars. 

Then I saw them at dinner. In a spacious dining- 
hall, seated on matting spread on the ground, they were 
arranged in long rows, each with a plate in her hand. 
When all was still thanks were sung to the heavenly 
Father ; then the cooks brought a large kettle of a kind 
of vegetable stew composed of bean-pods and cauli- 
flower, and the matron, assisted by two of the large 
girls, dij^ped a plateful out for each one as she came 
from her place in the line to the side of the dining-hall, 
where the cook had deposited the kettle. To each girl 
was given also a loaf of their native bread, looking 
more like a large griddle-cake than what we call a loaf. 
These loaves are generally baked by being stuck on the 
side of a hole in the ground, first heated by burning 
some weeds or leaves; but in this case they were baked 
on a broad iron griddle. I tasted the stew, to find it so 
strong of pepper, or chillies, that one taste was all my 
Yankee mouth could endure. It was a constant wonder 
to me that the people of India seemed to need so much 
pungent condiments in their food, but I have found my 
own appetite craving sharper condiments here than at 
home, owing, doubtless, to the enervating climate. 

In addition to their studies these girls are taught to 
make their own clothing, take care of their rooms, pre- 



WOMAN'S FOREIGN MISSIONAR 7 SO CIETY. 1 83 

pare and cook their own food, yet so as not to detract 
time enougli from their studies as to injure the mental 
drill. When through school they must go into native 
homes as wives of teachers, preachers, government 
workmen, and the like ; so Mrs. Parker's plan is not to 
educate them away from the possibility of living suc- 
cessfully in such homes. They are not to be heathen 
homes, to be sure, but Christian ones, for of all the 
hundreds of girls who have been in this school and 
taken in it the full course of five years or more not one 
has been known to go back to heathenism or to a bad 
life. It is a marvelous record. 

A story they told me of one girl shows the worth and 
power of their teaching and character. She was from a 
family brought out of heathenism a few years before, 
and had spent three or four years in the school, a prom- 
ising student. Two of her younger sisters were there 
also, coming in later than she had done. It transpired 
that the father through some influence relapsed into 
heathenism, and only waited for vacation to come in 
order to have his girls return to his home, and then, 
not permitting them to go back to the school, compel 
them to enter with him on the worship of the idols. 
On coming home he told the older one in the course of 
a few da3'^s that she w^as to be married at such a time to 
a certain man, though she was but fourteen years old. 
She plea<led with her father that she wanted to go back 
to school ; that she did not want to marry at that time; 
then, finally, that the man designed for her was a 
heathen, and she would marry only a Christian. But 
the father was inexorable till she, reproving him for 
returning to the old idols, told him he might go ahead 
with the preparations for her marriage, but when the 
time came she should not be found, and that he might 



184 A WINTER m INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

look for her body in some well or tank. This last re- 
sort determined upon by the girl called a halt in the 
man's mind and purpose. He stopped the marriage 
plans, and then the brave girl urged and begged him 
to return to the worship of Christ; and so potent were 
her words and influence that he again threw away 
his idols and sent the three girls back to school. The 
oldest one, having finished her course, is now in the Gov- 
ernment Medical College at Agra, and the others are 
doing well in this school. O, women of America, be- 
lieve that these sisters of yours in India are worthy of 
your work, your money, your prayers, and confidence! 

Schools like this or but slightly modified, all doing 
grand work for God and humanity, are scattered through 
India in diflferent denominations, while the government 
furnishes professional ones for those who wish to take a 
medical course, and chances for a college course to those 
who desire to go beyond matriculation, to which grade 
most of our girls' schools take the pupils. At Lucknow 
our own Church is commencing, with Miss Florence 
Perrine in charge, to teach girls beyond the matricula- 
tion grade, having already taken a few two years in a 
college course. I hope the embryo will yet produce a full 
college course for our Christian girls here. I was de- 
lighted with the nicely kept grounds, the commodious 
buildings, and complete air of comfort about the whole 
establishment at Lucknow, and Miss De Vine's success- 
ful conduct of her variously graded school. Many a 
point in our property secured in India has come to us in 
a providential way that is surprising to me; some gift 
of government, some lease of long standing from a na- 
tive, or, possibly, a purchase at astonishingly low prices. 
In this school at Lucknow the expenses for the boarding 
department are all met by the fees charged, so that the 



WOMAN'S FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 185 

expense to the American Church is comparatively slight. 
Some of the girls are learning the American mode of 
working their own way through school. When we 
think of those girls, at the most but one generation out 
of the abjectest condition of subjection and ignorance, 
so eager for an education that they will toil and try to 
get it, those helping them can be assured that the help 
is well expended. In all the schools many are converted, 
just as is occurring in America. As at home, so here, 
that change often works wonders in behavior, character, 
and work. Girls from heathen homes, as well as from 
Christian ones, are led to conversion by their teachers 
and the Spirit. It cannot be otherwise than that in such 
work the teachers should be happy and contented as I 
have found them to be here. Happy the women that 
can be in such work, and fortunate the girls for whom 
they sacrifice and toil ! 

In Calcutta the school-building, owing to lack of 
space, could not be built as well adapted to native habit 
and taste as those in localities like Moradabad and Luck- 
now; hence, here it is of three stories and more like an 
American school building. It is the same at Naini Tal, 
in the school under Miss Easton for European and Amer- 
ican children; and each house has the dormitories not 
separate as we do, but so arranged that ten, twenty, or 
forty girls sleep in one room. The people of India are 
extremely social among themselves, and especially is 
this true of the girls; so they desire to sleep and eat 
together. I noticed in Mrs. Parker's school that two 
of the smaller girls often ate off the same plate as 
they held it between them. If they are made to ob- 
serve rigid caste lines before attending Christian schools, 
so that only those of the same caste associate with one 
another, after coming to these schools they generally 



186 A WINTER m INDIA AND MALA 7SIA. 

learn that no caste can be observed here. Dr. Parker 
insisted, in his school for boys, that in Christianity they 
are higher than any caste. 

The schools for girls in all parts of Asia that I visited 
are kept separate from those of the boys, and that is as 
yet a necessity; but there are tendencies toward a con- 
dition of things when that will no longer be a necessity. 
At the great Sunday-school fete in Lucknow I saw 
groups of native girls from our schools going about the 
park as freely as such girls do in America, but which 
would not be thought of by the natives outside the 
Christian charch work. Such promise in that to India 
and to her women ! The nineteenth century is truly 
woman's century, whether woman is white, brown, yel- 
low, or black. 

At Moradabad and elsewhere I caught passing glimpses 
of the primary schools for girls; and while they are crude 
and strange, when gauged by our notion of a primary 
school, they are full of promise and prophecy. Under 
some veranda or tree a group of a dozen or two of girls 
would collect to read, learn arithmetic and geography, 
under the direction of a teacher from our mission, or 
some one selected for this purpose from among skilled 
non-Christian teachers. They told me that sometimes 
those who were married would come, bringing their 
babies in their arms or astride one hip, as they generally 
carry them. Mohammedans as well as Hindus attend 
these schools. The Bible is one of the principal things 
taught, the parables, the simple, straight statements of 
history, personal life, and doctrine appealing most 
sweetly to the keen minds of these young Indian girls. 
Besides their studies they are often taught to work — 
learning to sew, embroider, knit, and such light tasks. 
Their attempt at singing was funny, and in many 



WOMAN'S FOREIGN MISSIONAR 7 SO CIETY. 187 

instances most commendable. Their native songs are 
sometimes changed so as to express Christian sentiment; 
and then, too, some of the native tunes have had words 
composed for them by our missionaries. Good transla- 
tions of our popular hymns have been made, it being a 
most interesting thing in the schools and churches to 
hear "What a friend we have in Jesus," "Nearer, my 
God, to thee," and other familiar hymns sung, not a 
word of which I could understand, though sung in a 
familiar tune. At such times I would join in, using the 
English words, thus singing in the spirit, if not, in that 
place, with the understanding also. 

Another active agency in giving girls and women 
their place in India is the custom very recently entered 
upon by our Church, and possibly by others, of admit- 
ting girls and boys into the same Sunday-schools, and, 
in a few instances, into the same primary schools. At 
Shahjehanpore I saw a hundred boys and fifty girls, not 
one of them Christians, in one Sunday-school in a 
crowded part of the city; the boys in two rooms of a 
mud-house, and the girls in an adjoining room, with 
two broad door-ways between them. In the reports of 
the North India Conference there came the fact from 
all parts that mixed Sunday-schools were going on as 
regularly as though it had been done ten or twenty 
years. Of course this has been the case for years in 
cities, where we have native churches and schools of 
converted boys and girls; but for it to take place among 
non-Christian communities was a thing unknown till in 
the last two or three years. The use of women teach- 
ers in boys' schools, the use of American women in pro- 
jected work, the way the native girls are being educated 
in schools, both Christian and non-Christian ; the genial, 
helpful, assuring influence of the native Bible women 



188 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA 7SIA. 

and medical practitioners, all must aid in this elevation 
of women. God intends the Woman's Foreign Mis- 
sionary Society, in his beneficent designs for woman- 
hood, to set women at work from races who have had 
generations of cumulative Christian culture, and to en- 
able them to carry the light to those in the darkness 
into which heathenism has plunged woman. 



WOMAN'S WORK. 189 



LETTER XXIV. 

WOMAN'S -WORK-MEDICAL, BIBLE READERS, DEACON- 
ESSES. 

Yeaks ago the women of the Christian Churches found 
that they could reach their sisters in darkness in several 
ways through the knowledge and practice of medicine. 
With devoted women to know is to do. Our Church 
has not been slow to use this means of reaching the 
homes and women of other lands. So I have found a 
medical missionary at almost all the great stations, hard 
at work for the natives at the same time that they stand 
as guardians of the health of our missionaries. The 
more scientific development of medical knowledge 
among Western nations, coupled with the superior skill 
of our physicians, enables our woman doctors to do a 
vast amount of good to suffering humanity in those 
countries. 

The general plan of work is to have a dispensary cen- 
trally located in a city to which all can come at certain 
hours in the day for advice, medicine, or treatment. 
As they gather in the waiting-room, to go in their 
turn to the doctor, a Bible reader is with them read- 
ing of the greater Physician, telling gospel truths and 
incidents, and singing Christian songs; by this means 
much spiritual good is done, along with the bodily 
good. Two or three times I was taken to such dispen- 
saries, to see a few of the poor things waiting for their 
call from the doctor, or else, in other cases, they had 



190 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

been permitted to pass from my masculine presence to 
the " pardali " of some of the back rooms. In most 
cases there is such poverty that they cannot pay, so the 
medicine and treatment are totally free; in cases of at- 
tendance on the rich they are permitted to pay for such 
service. Now and then some native prince or rich 
rajah is so grateful for the restoration of himself or 
some of his family to health that thousands of rupees 
are forthcoming, and it not infrequently happens that 
irrralnable concessiona for chances to preach and teach 
Christianity are freely given by him. 

Superstitions regarding ill health are hardly less j^cr- 
nicious than those concerning idolatry; indeed, the two 
are closely blended in their beliefs and practices. Even 
the very medicines given out by our women are sometimes 
regarded not as things to be taken and used as good min- 
istries, but are kept stored away in the hut or about their 
persons as talismans. At other times they will take all 
the medicine designed for several doses and several days 
at one time and then return for more. Often the mis- 
sionary does not allow strong medicine to be taken 
away, but requires her helper to prepare and give it on 
the spot. In many instances outlying dispensaries are 
established in some populous district or large town, in 
charge of a skilled native, some student in medicine un- 
der the American doctor or one from the medical col- 
lege. A judicious issue of medicines is the most to be 
expected of such establishments, but in India that is 
much. 

Another way our missionaries have of doing good 
and leading to the truth is to take a medicine-chest with 
them as they attend a great mela or Hindu religious 
festival. There as they gather to worship their native 
gods the children of the true God come with healing 



WOiMAN'S WORK 191 

for soul and body, and many attend, to receive the 
double healing. Dr. Christiancy, of Bareilly, who was 
at the Brindaban mela this year, told me that her 
medicine-chest from which she was dealing medicine to 
the crowds that flocked about her, and the teaching and 
preaching of Christ, kept the masses close about her 
and her helpers totally oblivious of the passing of 
Krishna's image, though it was one of his most attract- 
ive processions. 

Our missionaries at these melas have some rich expe- 
riences. Miss Downey told me of the people crowding 
about her to hear the story of Jesus in such numbers 
that sometimes she could not go from place to place, 
and those who had heard once or twice were most eager 
to hear again. Once a lot of men who had stood apart 
as she was preaching to the women came as soon as 
she was done with those, begging her to speak the 
same things to them. Sitting on the ground and on 
their haunches, they listened for half an hour to her 
and then begged her to go on. Dr. McDowell told 
of her and Mrs. Dr. Scott's being at the Brindaban 
mela when a man disposed to create a disturbance 
was stilled by a native policeman, who then said in 
a low voice, " What these ladies say is true ; I am a 
Christian myself." 

Every-where the grosser forms of idol-worship are 
being abandoned. The game of imposture practiced 
by the priests upon the credulity of the people is less 
and less a paying one. The very fakirs under special 
vows are vastly fewer, they told me, and for myself I saw 
very little of their peculiar practices. The whole life 
of India is being touched by the power of Christianity, 
and even women are coming in for their portion of its 
benedictions. 



192 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

It was my supreme joy to see the inside of one of the 
Lady Dafferin Hospitals, that at Cawnpore, under 
the direction of Mrs. N. M. Mansell, M.D. It hris 
been established with funds raised at a fair at Naini 
Tal, and when that fund is exhausted it will be turned 
over to the American mission. It is in a thickly popu- 
lous part of the city, where women who have never be- 
fore been outside their closed homes can easily reach it. 
In some cases the husbands come as far as the court- 
gate and there wait while their afflicted wives are being 
treated inside. By a curious decision of her ladyship, 
neither the physician nor her attendants in the Duiferin 
Hospitals are permitted to say one word to the patients 
on the subject of Christianity. Waiting was the fate of 
Rev. Dr. Mansell as his wife took me in to see the inside, 
where he had never gone. Being a passing stranger I 
could be permitted to see it. Mrs, Mansell's assistant 
is a native high caste woman, very efficient in her place 
and duty, whom the low caste people that come there 
for treatment hol.d in such veneration that they are said 
actually to w^orship her, falling down before her as they 
come into her presence and when receiving the medi- 
cine from her hand. This sacred one, this goddess, was 
certainly not up to the Greek ideal of the goddess in 
beauty, judging from their expressed thought in the 
statues of Yenus and Diana, and comparing that ideal 
with this woman. Through the somewhat spacious 
court we were led by this sacred one across the wide 
veranda, where the man of the house, when it was a 
native dwelling, would receive his visitors, or he might 
take them into the first room, also spacious, opening 
from the veranda by two or three doors. In this place 
was the consulting-room, and on each side of it smaller 
rooms, in which were operating-tables and other fixtures 



WOMAN'S WORK. 193 

of a hospital. Three or four rooms farther back were 
the real living rooms of the women, when it was a 
dwelling, with no windows, all the light entering them 
coming from the front room. They are now fitted for 
actual hospital-rooms, with beds and other necessary 
furnishings. They seemed to me veritable cells. I was 
exceedingly glad to see the inside of one of those houses 
occupied by the rich, and here I Jiad the chance. Mrs. 
Mansell receives and prescribes for hundreds of the 
women every week. Her reputation for success has 
been a benediction to those who by it are encouraged 
to come to her for treatment. 

Not far away from this very hospital where Anglo- 
Saxon women are doing so much for their Indian sis- 
ters was the well made famous in the awful Cawnpore 
massacre as the place where the bodies of six or seven 
scores of English women and children were flung after 
their remorseless butchery in a bungalow near by. I 
visited the spot with Professor Rockey, to stand in 
silent sorrow, as I recalled the horrors of that day. It 
seemed just that no native is permitted to enter the 
gate-way of the iron fence surrounding the place and 
the beautiful angel cut in marble holding the palm- 
leaves in attitude of grief, nor to approach near it. 
Even the driver of our carriage knew his restrictions, 
and kept far away from the English soldier at the well. 
That is the only punishment, and in the crowded city 
near by English and American missionaries are de- 
voutly laboring for the very descendants of those who 
did the bloody deed. That is a part of God's revenge. 

The stories Mrs. Dr. Mansell told of the suffering of 
women, the brutal treatment and coarse neglect be- 
stowed on those whom all human instincts should protect 
and help, the awful showing in her able paper in the 
13 



194 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

Indian Evangelical Revieio on " Child Marriage," of 
the results of this on the deterioration of the noble Aryan 
race of India, and the suffering and destruction it en- 
tails u23on the child-mothers, all, and more, combined to 
give me a picture of India's needs that made my heart's 
blood grow chill. Woman in heathenism is a pitiable 
object. The Master who encouraged Mary also to sit 
at his feet, as well as the tAvelve, is leading India's mill- 
ions of women to do the same. Never has the worth 
of that place seemed greater to me than when I have 
seen these poor women here receiving its blessings, both 
material and spiritual. 

I have asked many of our experienced missionaiies 
about the probable outlook for Ramabai's movement in 
behalf of the widows, and the unanimous opinion is that 
vast difficulties lie in the way of success. That something 
is demanded to ameliorate the lot and condition of wid- 
ows is as plain as the sunlight, they say, but the problem 
is how to succeed. The missionaries have tried to reach 
them as a class, and so far have met with very indif- 
ferent success. Our church at Lucknow has had a home 
for them of some modified purpose, one at Shahjehan- 
pore, also on a small scale, and a few have found refuge 
in each, but their number is small, ahd the class of 
women entering has not been the child-widows so much 
as older ones, whose course of life since widowhood has 
often thrown additional difficulties in the way of their 
making useful members of society. Child-widows and 
those younger could be taught and set at work with a 
noble purpose. They say that the American Board has 
met with a slightly better measure of success than we 
have, but in it all the results have been but meager. 
My heart was deeply moved as Miss Blackmar, at Luck- 
now, and Mr. Bare, at Shahjehanpore, and others, told of 



WOMAN'S WORK. 193 

the interesting cases wliich came under their direction 
and knowledge. The home at Lucknow has been made 
into a deaconess home by the action of the North 
India Conference at its late session, though that need 
not necessarily change its distinctive help to such as 
may come to claim its benefits. But such are the 
notions and superstitions in regard to widows that it is 
extremely difficult to gain access to them. Often our 
zenana workers go months to a home before learning 
there is a widow living there, as she is always hus- 
tled out of sight when the women come, since she is 
the household drudge and actually a slave in the 
home of her dead husband's relations. By a real 
exchange of money or presents she had become the 
property of the husband's family, and after his death 
can never go back to her own people. It is the belief 
that through neglecting the gods or other fault of 
hers the husband died, and now she must suffer to 
atone for his loss in the household. Half -starved, mis- 
erably clad, overworked, beaten, despised, these widows 
are the most pitiable of objects. Being owned by the 
dead husbands' fathers they can hardly at all get away 
from them, hence our missionaries have succeeded but 
poorly in reaching them. If God has raised up Ramabai 
to reach this suffering, despised class of India's women 
the blessings she can bring are numberless. But it 
will doubtless be a long, hard struggle, with many 
delays and some mutations. 

The devoted wife of President Scott, of the Theolog- 
ical School at Bareilly, is doing a most productive work. 
Almost all the young men coming there for the benefit 
of the school are married, and sometimes fathers of two 
or three children. In many instances these wives have 
had but limited chances of school, if any, so they must 



196 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

be instructed along the line of rudiments as well as in 
the Bible to fit them to be workers with their husbands 
when these go out as preachers and teachers. A few 
have had the advantages of the high schools for girls at 
Moradabad, Lucknow, and elsewhere, and such can be 
utilized at the same time they are taking advanced 
studies as teachers, Bible workers, and the like. Mrs. 
Scott told me of her school, of the fifty or more eager to 
learn, since they see the need of measuring well up to 
their husbands in mental development; of their coming 
to the study with one baby and sometimes two in their 
arms; the difficulties of teaching when crying or crowing 
babies prevailed in the room, the little plans they formed 
to have the babies and young children cared for as they 
themselves came to the school; the eager, hopeful spirit 
of these young wives and mothers as they caught 
glimpses of the broad field opening before them and 
their sex where before all had been almost a total 
blank. If I had heard of this school before it had not 
attracted my attention enough for me to remember it, 
so its worth, promise, and results came to me like a rev- 
elation. 

Another pleasing phase of work supported by the 
Woman's Foreign Missionary Society is that of Bible 
readers. The book is its own best teacher. Scores of 
native women, mostly the wives of preachers, teachers, 
and other native Christians, women of educational 
attainment and converted hearts, are sent out to the 
homes of the non-Christian natives in the villages and 
cities, to read to the women and children, and some- 
times to the men also, to give them a knowledge of the 
teachings of the book which has revealed to us eternal 
life and all its crowd of blessings. This method of work, 
costing the home society but a few dollars a year for 



WOMAN'S WORK 197 

each reader, has proven its worth and wisdom. Usually 
these devoted native women are directed by an Ameri- 
can lady missionary, the one designed for zenana work. 
Many conversions and much good that is now founda- 
tion-laying come in this way. The native women can 
admirably reach their shy sisters, whose life has been 
that of seclusion and superstition. 

Great hope for the deaconess movement is held by 
our veteran missionaries in India. Homes have already 
been started at Lucknow, Agra, Calcutta, and I think at 
Madras. It has been my fortune to see some of the 
ladies brought out by Bishop Thoburn to found and 
direct these embryonic institutions, and their hopeful- 
ness and promise seem prophetic for doing much good. 
Personally I have a bit of undefined fear that these 
homes may degenerate in Protestantism in the course of 
years to something like the nunneries of Catholicism^ 
but I greatly hope my fears are baseless. Any w^ay, 
they seem at once to have an inviting field here, and I 
am glad to see so good an entrance made. Some way 
seems to be demanded for supplying workers in foreign 
fields faster than can now be done with the rather high 
rates of expense necessary for regular members of the 
Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, so that if the 
deaconess movement will supply that demand it will be 
seen that it is of God and has vast promise. 



198 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA TSIA. 



LETTER XXV. 

WOMAN'S WORK-ZENANA, ORPHANAGES. 

I WAS exceedingly eager to learn about the practical 
results of the zenana work, since on its start a class of 
India's people was reached that could not, at present, 
have the Gospel carried to them except by this means. I 
presume the good missionary women of India will re- 
call a wearisome interlocutor, but if so it was to get at 
as many facts as I could of the system. It is certainly 
an opening such as is found to present itself to us for 
God's work if only people are ready to enter it. Here 
was the problem — a vast part of those benighted mill- 
ions totally inaccessible to the truth, then the narrow- 
est kind of providential opening to admit that truth, 
keen-eyed missionaries to use it, and the known results, 
access to thousands of women and children, limited only 
by the number of workers that can be employed. In 
Bombay, for instance, a city of six hundred thousand, 
people, the workers of the Woman's Foreign Mission- 
ary Society of our Church have access to a hundred and 
fifty families, thus meeting about two hundred women; 
a few hundred more are reached in a similar way by 
other denominations, so that possibly a thousand families 
in the city at the most are visited, while they might be 
reached by the ten thousand were there workers enough 
to knock at the doors. The missionaries say that the 
native women and girls soon show the good result of 
the teaching given them at their homes; the employ- 



WOMAN'S WORK 199 

ment in substantial duties, the hope coming to them 
through the Bible and song, and the touch of modern 
life, all unite in imparting a brighter, more hopeful 
look to their very faces. The mental curse of these 
women whose minds have been left blank all these gen- 
erations, with an ever-cumulative weight of hereditary 
darkness, must rest with blasting effect on the men and 
system imposing this ignorance and imbecility upon 
them. The workers find interminable difficulties in the 
families. Often there are two or more wives, and chil- 
dren variously related, so that the question of what 
these women shall do as they begin to believe in Christ 
is a perplexing one. The mothers-in-law are often the 
veriest tyrants. Miss De Line telling of one who bru- 
tally flogged her daughter-in-law who was nineteen years 
old and the mother of two or three children. Think of 
a young Yankee woman's being expected to submit to 
whipping by her mother-in-law ! But then the sons-in- 
law ! The women in the homes to which access is ob- 
tained gradually come to be delighted with the visits 
of the missionaries and native Bible readers. Sometimes 
the husbands get alarmed lest their wives may believe 
in the new faith, which must stand inimical to their 
practices, and so close their houses to the Christian 
workers; in some instances the native women assure our 
people that though their visits must cease they for their 
part will pray in secret to the Jesus of whom they have 
learned. It not infrequently happens that if excluded 
from the houses for a while by the husbands' fears and 
notions they are heartily welcomed at a later period. 

I was taken by Mrs. Bruere into some of the native 
Christian homes of Bombay, calling at seven and eight 
o'clock in the morning, which would be an odd hour to 
call in America. It was in a dingy quarter of the great 



200 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

city, where the dank, slimy water stood in the ditches 
over which one stepped to enter upon the veranda. 
Fevers, small-pox, and cholera could not but be engen- 
dered in such a vile atmosphere. Most native houses 
have wide porches, under which the men-folks are likely 
to sleep. Some little bamboo bedsteads, or " charpoys," 
were usually set out in these to relieve the one room 
inside where the family lived. Now and then we found 
a family able to have two rooms, but whether one or 
two they seemed to me the poorest places I had ever 
seen that human beings inhabited. Half a dozen tin or 
copper dishes, a charpoy or two, a few bits ol matting 
on the earth floor, some blankets folded away in a niche 
in the wall, in one corner of the room a little fire-place 
built of mud, as large as a man's hat, over which could 
be placed a copper kettle, with a little fire under it 
made of leaves, straw, or dried cow-dung, the pungent 
smoke from which comes into the room, since there are 
no chimneys in an Indian house, and you have a view 
of an Indian home. These are among the homes of the 
better class of those who do daily labor, since Christian 
belief and practice show themselves very soon in the 
care and comfort of their houses. Of course, no man is 
permitted to enter the homes of the unchristianized 
natives, no matter how poor they may be. The women, 
even in Christian homes, are exceedingly shy of strangers, 
because of the long habit of seclusion, but in this case 
the presence of Mrs. Bruere was assuring to them. 

They told me that a result which was having a good 
influence among the non-Christian people was the better 
condition of the homes of those converted to Christ. 
The poor creatures are not so dull or bigoted as not to 
notice that when their neighbors accept Jesus they at 
once keep their homes in better shape and more cleanly. 



WOMAN'S WORK. 201 

In Cawnpore a plot of land has been purchased in the 
heart of the city, where a hundred or so of native Chris- 
tian families live near each other, and in most cases 
these homes have only one room. When visiting them 
vrith Dr. Mansell, the pastor of the native church, I 
found them to be clean, well-regulated, and their inmates 
well clad and cheerful. Such improvement, when seen 
by those yet in heathenism, cannot fail of being an at- 
traction to the natives. Our women become greatly in 
love with the zenana work, and no wonder, for they 
can do so much good. 

At the North India Conference Mrs. Dr. Badley told 
us of being called to visit a Mohammedan girl who had 
been in one of our Sunday-schools, where she had 
learned the Golden Text, "He that believeth on me 
hath everlasting life." She found the girl in a filthy 
home, on a broken charpoy, dying. The poor thing, 
drawing down Mrs. Badley's face close to her own so 
her people would not overhear, told her she was trust- 
ing in the Christ who had spoken the words of that text, 
as Mrs. Badley had explained to her. Then the girl 
wanted her to sing in Hindustani " Little children, little 
children, who follow their Saviour;" and asked her if 
she who had always been in rags would have a white 
dress like Mrs. Badley's. One more thing the Chris- 
tian missionary could do, bend down over the wan face 
as the girl requested and kiss her ere she went away. A 
few days afterward she called again to find the little 
broken charpoy vacant; the girl had gone to the Saviour 
of whom she had heard at the Sunday-school. 

Such are the conditions of society in India that those 
who would do good to the people must do many kinds 
of beneficent work for them. From the early history 
of the mission orphanages have been a necessity. Into 



202 A WmmR IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

every school, both for boys and girls, these waifs are 
certain to find their way, and the missionaries see in 
every one of those coming to them the possibilities of a 
good worker hereafter. So they are welcomed, fed, 
taught, and used. At the girls' school at Shahjehanpore 
the matron and Dr. Hoskins showed me a little girl 
whose story they told. She was eight years old, perhaps, 
but small, like all the children there. Her people be- 
longed to the leather-workers, one of the low castes. 
One day, not long before, while playing with a little 
girl of another low caste, the oil-men, she entered the 
little girl's home and ate with her a bit of bread, not 
thinking for the moment of breaking her caste by it. But 
her people heard of it, and so strong and horrible was 
the feeling of caste in them that they at once drove her 
from their home into the street, beating her away from 
them. After a while, crying, hungry, she returned, beg- 
ging them to let her in, but it was in vain, and they 
drove her again into the streets of the city. What 
would be the results ? Any one of several. She might 
gain a precarious existence a while by begging, only to 
die in the end from want and disease, or soon starve in 
spite of begging, and her body be eaten by dogs, jack- 
als, and hogs; or she might be picked up by Mohamme- 
dans, and brought up for use in houses of ill-fame. 
This last was what actually did befall the poor thing, 
and at this juncture one of our native Bible women 
heard of it all. By a good British law when a child is 
known to be kept in such a house the missionaries, and 
doubtless any one else, can, by legal process, send a 
policeman to take her away. This our folks did, and I 
saw her a day or two after she had been given over to 
the missionaries. Think of parents, for their notions 
of caste, utterly traitorous to all human instincts and 



WOMAN'S WORK. 203 

aiiections, turning their helpless girl into the street to 
starve or live a life worse than death! In the mission 
the little thing, bright and clean and dressed, was con- 
tented already, they said, being better clothed, fed, and 
kept than ever before. God may have a mission for 
this waif. As you see a successful Bible reader or 
teacher, or the happy wife of some teacher or preacher 
in our Church, who has come to her place through our 
mission by some such dreadful start, you feel like put- 
ting more and more money at the command of the mis- 
sionaries. 

At Bfireilly Rev. Mr. Neeld, our missionary, showed 
me a boy at his house one day whose story, if less piti- 
ful, was still very pathetic. His name is Munglee, the 
son of a widow, and he is now fourteen years of age. 
They were of the leather-workers' caste. A boy friend 
of his had become a Christian and was being educated 
at the Shahjehanpore Orphanage. During vacation the 
Christian boy went home, when the two young friends 
got together and ate together and thus this one broke 
his caste. As he went home and it was known he had 
eaten with the Christian boy his mother could not take 
him to her house, and as she was too poor to pay for 
his re-entering the caste by a costly feast to the rest of 
them she turned him away. In his despair he found his 
way to our native preacher at Bahari, who brought him 
to Mr. Neeld to see what could be done for him. For 
his support the missionary gave him two rupees and a 
half a month and put him with a Christian family in the 
mission compound, having him attend school, where he 
has been about eight months. At the end of six 
months, finding that no one put in a claim for him as a 
minor, as could have been done up to that time by law, 
he was baptized in November, 1888. The boy is a fine- 



204 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

looking one, and has learned to read well in the first 
book of Urdu. Recently his money has been increased 
to three rupees a month, and should he grow up as prom- 
ising as now he will doubtless become a valuable worker 
in the mission and among the people of his caste, as 
there are many of the leather-workers in and about 
Bareilly. I wanted to give him a rupee, and on his be- 
ing called to me and asked what he needed he said a 
blanket to sleep in, as he now had only one, and the ru- 
pee, with a little money he had on hand, would buy him 
the needed blanket. 

At this same city of Bareilly, where our Mission be- 
gan in India, the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society 
has now a large orphanage for girls, containing two 
hundred and thirty, of all ages, from little babies to 
young women of marriageable age. Standing one day 
chatting with Dr. T. J. Scott in front of his house, a 
native approached, made his profound bow, and handed 
him the following letter : 

"Amballa City, January 9, 1889. 

"My Dear Mr. Scott : The bearer, from Bareilly, 
wishes to get married, and for that purpose has taken 
leave of me, his mother, living at Bareilly, having called 
him. He wishes to get a girl from the school there. 

" Will you kindly assist him in the matter ? He as- 
sists me in the hospital and has general oversight of my 
room and house. I would like to have him get a really 
good, steady girl who can read and write and be of 
some assistance in the hospital among the women ; but 
that would be only occasionally, when called upon. 
"Yours sincerely, M. B. Carleton." 

He handed me the letter, and, on reading it, I asked 
him what he would do, and he said he should refer the 



WOMAN'S WORK. 205 

man and the letter to Miss English, the lady in charge 
of the orphanage, for that was what Dr. Carleton meant. 
The letter was given to me, with the request that I ask 
Miss English, as I visited the orphanage that afternoon, 
what she should do in the matter. On going to that in- 
stitution she said this request was like many that were 
coming to her, and that it was in the regular course of 
the way such things have to be done in India. Girls 
among the non-Christian people are not consulted about 
their husbands, but the arrangements are all made by 
the father or brothers, and as yet much the same course 
must be followed in regard to the Christian girls ; still 
not wholly, for in many cases the young people see each 
other in the Sunday-schools, at the homes of the mission- 
aries, and other places, so that there is^^ossible for them a 
slight chance to get a little acquainted and, at least, to 
see each other. Miss English said that she should have 
the man call at the orphanage, talk with him a while, and, 
using her judgment of the girl who, of her dozen or 
twenty marriageable ones, would suit him, bring her to 
meet him in the reception-room, and if the girl and the 
man were both suited after having talked with each 
other the marriage would be arranged, in a few hours 
consummated, and he would take her to his mother's 
home in Bareilly, preparatory to the long journey back 
to Amballa, which is near Delhi. 

It was to me an odd way of doing this thing, but after 
all a great gain over the custom savages have of forcibly 
abducting the girl, yet far behind the Western mode, 
where the woman has the same right to her wish after 
years, it may be, of acquaintanoe as the man has to his 
preference. To the orphanage many native Christians 
come to obtain wives. Miss English reporting that during 
the past year twenty-five have thus gone out. 



206 A WINTER m INDIA AND MALA 7SIA. 

As in all the East, smoking is an inveterate habit 
among the women as well as men. Dr. T. J. Scott, 
president of our theological school, with others, has or- 
ganized a crusade against it among the native Christians, 
and at the mela, at Chandusi, I saw the great procession 
of the " Lai Fita Faj," numbering about eight hundred, 
all wearing the red ribbon, for the native name of this 
organization means "The Hed Ribbon Army." Some 
of the Christian men and women who have smoked all 
their life-time are gladly giving it up, and the students 
in both the boys' and girls' schools are pledging them- 
selves to abstain or not to begin its use. In the orphan- 
age the older girls to the number of ninety have joined 
this organization, making quite a division. I went into 
the mill-room to see them grinding flour and making 
bread. There are thirty-two sets of stones, the lower 
one of each set fastened into the dirt floor, the upper one 
capping down over the lower and turned by two girls as 
they sit beside this primitive mill, each grasping a peg 
of wood standing upright in the side of tlie upper stone. 
The coarse flour comes out from under this stone, drop- 
ping into a narrow trough arranged for that purpose. 
Two girls were baking loaves of bread over a fire of 
leaves or dried sugar-cane on a large iron griddle, much 
as flapjacks are made in America. The griddle was dry, 
instead of being greased or buttered as with us. 

Not the least interesting part of Christian work in the 
city of Bombay is the private hospital of Dr. Armstrong, 
a sister of Rev. Dr. Armstrong, pastor of the Methodist 
church in Nashua, N. H. Trained in her school and 
medical course for work in the Woman's Foreign Mis- 
sionary Society, but not being sent out by them she 
came out here on her own account, began practice, and 
in the two or three years since has become well estab- 



WOMAN'S WORK. 207 

lished in her work and is justly attracting attention to 
her skill and success. But her purpose is to work along 
missionary lines, since she has an organized private hos- 
pital in which are six wee waifs, both native and Euro- 
pean. Associated with her are her sister, an English 
woman, and a native Christian woman as a medical 
student. The expenses of this novel venture amount to 
two hundred rupees a month, and are met entirely by 
the lucrative practice of Dr. Armstrong. Mr. Stuntz, 
Mr. Delamater, and I rode to her home in a bullock-cart, 
which is not a "tony" way to ride in Bombay ; but we 
got there all the same, safe and sound, to enjoy a pleas- 
ant breakfast with these elect ladies, and then went to 
look into their nursery and hear the ways of thus bring- 
ing the blessings of Christ to India's needy ones. 



208 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 



LETTER XXVI. 

THE QUESTION OF CLOTHING AND HOMES. 

While these people, brown, and oftentimes almost 
black, present, in their features and skins, a very dark 
aspect, they frequently dress in white. They have 
come to a conclusion that white better resists the 
awful glare and heat of the tropical sun. Not that 
all dress in white, or that all those who have clothing 
once spotless keep it so, but a majority dress in white 
cotton. Colors used are bright ones. Under our duller 
skies this glow of coloration would seem gaudy, but 
under the bright sun and high tints of nature in this 
country it seems all proper in taste. The working 
classes, when their clothing is composed of white cot- 
ton, get it greatly begrimed, so that its dirty hue might 
be supposed by its wearers to add color more cheaply 
than dye-stujf s. But when they have on really white, 
clean garments their graceful way of wearing them 
loosely about the form, the slender build of the Hindus, 
their jet black hair, whiskers, and eyes, form a contrast 
and create an effect that are very fine and seem the 
perfection of ease and grace. There being no j^i'evail- 
ing style, as in America or Europe, much latitude is used 
by different races, different castes, occuj^ation, and 
ability to dress. Though the beginning of winter 
when I landed in Bombay the air was scalding hot in 
the day-time, and not very cool at night, so that many 
of the working-men and boys could, and did, go with 



THE QUESTION OF CLOTHING AND HOMES. 209 

almost no clothing, none, indeed, save a little about 
the hips and loins and a cloth bound about the head. 
The poor women would usually have on a skirt and a 
loose cloth about their shoulders and head. Of course, I 
could not see how the rich women were dressed save now 
and then a glimpse obtained as they would get in and 
out the special zenana compartments prepared for them 
in the rail-cars. All who are able, both men and women, 
make frequent use of shawls. The women envelop the 
head in these, while the men wrap them gracefully 
about the shoulders. One of these Indian men, in a 
faultlessly white turban, a waistcoat of some bright- 
colored silk, a white or colored shawl or chuddar so 
thrown about his shoulders that one end is flung back- 
ward over the left shoulder, a peculiarly folded cloth 
so arranged as to wrap around each leg separately, 
makes a most interesting native dude. The Bengali 
people seemed to me to be more set up in fine clothing 
than those of any other part of India. It does seem 
queer to see them almost entirely go barefoot. But in 
such a burning climate the need of shoes is not deeply 
felt. From constantly going barefooted the under 
sides of their feet become almost as hard as sole-leather, 
so that they sound hard and dry on the street or pave- 
ment. A few wear loose coarse slippers, especially in 
the cities. It was told me of one of the new lieutenant- 
governors that as he came to Calcutta and saw the peo- 
ple all going about the streets barefoot he said to one of 
his council it should be the object of his administration 
to enable these people to have shoes ! 

The richness of the shawls, silk garments of one kind 

and another, cloaks for the children, and other clothing 

of those who are very wealthy, is most fabulous. They 

told me at Moradabad of a small boy only three or four 

14 



210 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

years of age that I saw playing in his grandfather's 
banking-house, who had made for him a cloak of gold- 
cloth which cost a thousand rupees, a sum equal in 
purchasing power to a thousand dollars in America. 
When we saw the boy he was inclosed in a cloak that 
was stiff with gold and silver thread. 

The ways of washing their clothing were strange and 
funny. I first noticed it in Bombay. Beside some 
pool or river they will place a rock or block of wood 
made rough; the washerman, standing in the water 
nearly up to his knees, will souse the garment around 
a while, then with both hands whip it down over his 
shoulder on the wash-block. At each blow he emits a 
stifled grunt. Indeed, the India people, as they do 
any work requiring an effort of muscular power, give 
forth such a grunt. These washermen, called in the na- 
tive tongue " dhobies," while not boiling their clothes, 
mianage to get them quite clean. They use a coarse 
kind of native soap, and for drying the clothes lay them 
out on the sand or grassy banks. They will return to 
you a washing well done up and costing so little that 
you are at first half ashamed to pay it. 

It is a curious necessity laid on one traveling in India 
that he must carry his own bedding. So in Bombay I 
purchased a pillow stuffed with cotton and some quilts 
adapted for one, and these, all of them bright-colored, 
rolled up in a mat, formed my " resai." I am going to 
take them home as mementoes. Later I have added a 
thick woolen blanket of coarse native work and of 
ample dimensions. When I have stopped at a hotel or 
missionary's home the servant at once has taken these 
things and made up my bed on the small single bed- 
stead, or charpoy, assigned me. 

To me, fresh from the comfortable homes of New 



THE QUESTION OF CLOTHING AND HOMES. 211 

England, their homes seem, exceedingly poor and in- 
adequate. Outside the great cities, and often in large 
sections of these, the house-walls are built of mud and 
til en thatched with grass or leaves, or else covered 
with bamboo first and then a coating of earth. If 
among these huts of the poor there are two rooms it is 
the exception. One room in such a mud hut forms the 
home of most of the families in this country of vast 
populations. A few rude pieces of furniture, a charpoy 
or two, a bench or other primitive seat, a dish or two 
for boiling the rice and vegetable food, are about all the 
things they possess. In one corner of the room, with 
no chimney to carry off the smoke, is a little fire-place 
made of burnt mud, as large as a man's hat, over which 
the cooking is done. A bit of fire is made of leaves, 
grasses, weeds, or more often of cakes of dried cow- 
dung. The mud of India, owing to so much lime being 
in it, is very tenacious, and well mixed can be laid into 
walls or fire-places and last a long time. Brick walls, 
laid only in such mud, if kept away from the rains, will 
last many years. These mud huts at the best are poor 
apologies for a place in which human beings can live. 
Their earth floors are dirty and form a harbor for ver- 
min, the walls are liable to totter to ruin in the rainy 
season, the roofs frequently fall in, and yet so costly 
are other kinds of buildings that these must be made 
and used. In the better part of cities and larger towns 
brick buildings are not uncommon, while others are 
built of wood and bamboo. One sees here half-deserted 
villages, the walls and roofs of the mud houses falling 
to utter decay. Such ruins form the best kind of refuge 
for the terrible serpents of this country. As I am here 
in the winter they are dormant, and I am glad of it. 
The homes of Europeans and of the American mis- 



212 A WINTER m INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

sionaries that I have seen are generally of better make. 
Usually ample grounds are secured and houses of wood 
or brick are put up, so that they can approach to some- 
thing like comfort in this terrible climate. I am glad I 
am not here in the summer to endure the sun, when in 
its full ray the thermometer rises to 160 degrees 
Fahrenheit. But no homes I have seen thus far around 
equal for solid comfort those of eastern United States. 
Houses for Western people to live in have to be built 
with reference to shielding them from such heat, walls 
thick, roofs in the one-storied ones high, the windows 
small, to keep out the glare. 

But these people, inured to the climate, sit or stand 
about in such a sun as now compels me to cover my hat 
with a " puggery," and over that carry an umbrella. 
They must scald in the sun and shiver in the night's 
chill. In the streets of Benares I saw children totally 
naked playing like puppies in the dirt, heat, and grime 
when the thermometer registered in the sun 135 degrees. 
Such naked or half-naked creatures then must endure 
a fall in temperature at night to 38 or 40 degrees with 
but scanty covering on their mats or charpoys. I am 
amazed at the way these people can sit down on their 
haunches. Their legs, almost as thin as sticks, seem to 
get used to being doubled up in this way and sustain- 
ing their weight. 

Their love of finery is most surprising, and the cus- 
toms guiding in its use are so funny ! Nose ornaments 
of one kind and another abound. Sometimes it is only a 
bit of silver with the poor, or with the rich a gem 
stuck in the outside of the nostril, while some wear a 
slender ring of brass about three inches across, pendent 
over the mouth from one nostril. Fashion makes fools 
— in India ! The bracelets worn seem almost as strange 



THE QUESTION OF CLOTHING AND HOMES, 213 

to us Western people as the nose ornaments. You will 
see some low caste women, when engaged in the dirtiest 
kinds of work, have their wrists and arms covered nearly 
to the elbow with bright metallic bracelets. They are 
cheap and tawdry, but doubtless yield their wearied, 
burdened wearers some comfort. At a station in the 
native State of Rajputana I saw a woman, who had just 
thrown off her head a pile of dried hides, have on her 
arms bracelet after bracelet till they reached nearly to 
the elbow. It is also quite common for them to wear 
great rings of silver or other metal above their elbows. 
The men put on these armlets as well as the women, and 
they often furnish all the clothing, besides the cloth 
they have about their hips, that workmen, or coolies, 
will wear. Many of the women wear on their thumbs 
an immense ring with a small mirror in it, just as the 
Greek and Roman women did two thousand years 
ago. These Indian women also w^ear great massive 
anklets, sometimes solid silver, sometimes hollow ones 
filled with small beads of glass that rattle as they 
walk. Then the end of ornamentation does not come 
until the end of the foot is reached, for on the toes 
of many of the working-women one sees thick, stout 
rings of silver. As they always go barefoot these 
rings make a comical showing. Sometimes they are 
only plain and broad, others have large rosettes on them. 
Three or four will be crowded on one toe, put on when 
the woman was a child, and, being allowed to remain, 
grow tight on. Now and then you will see some bit 
of colored glass or a poor native stone put into these 
toe-rings. The whole effect of these white silver orn;i- 
ments, about the ankles and on the toes, placed on feet 
that are bare and brown and dirty, is to us practical 
Western people thoroughly laughable. So wide-spread 



214 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

and costly is this use of finery, since all, whether coolie 
people earning two or three cents a day or richer ones 
rolling in wealth, indulge in it, that much outcry is be- 
ing made against it by Western people interested in 
the welfare of the natives, and is also attracting atten- 
tion from some of the educated native gentlemen. It 
is known that India is the vortex which is swallowing 
up much of the gold and silver of the world, and while 
great quantities are hoarded and buried, more of it goes 
into these ornaments. 



AT THE BENGAL CONFERENCE. 215 



LETTER XXVn. 

AT THE BENGAL CONFEKENCE. 

Having greatly enjoyed being present at the North 
India Conference, now grown to grand proportions 
from our first mission, I was eager to visit one of the 
other Conferences to see how this class of work was 
succeeding. Here the self-supporting plan of William 
Taylor has had a trial of several years, though now the 
work is being partially taken under the wing of the 
Parent Board, with some grants of money to aid it. 
The Bengal Conference met this year at Allahabad, a 
city at the junction of the sacred Ganges and the hardly 
less sacred Jumna, and also at the junction of two or 
three important railroads. I am the guest of J. P. 
Flemming, Esq., a prominent English official, the father 
of Mrs. Dr. Dease, of the North India Conference, who 
is present. The station of Dr. and Mrs. Dease is far 
among the Himalayas. Half a dozen of us were enter- 
tained through the Conference by this man, the men of 
the party having a large, splendid native tent of can- 
vas to sleep in, lined with purple, red-trimmed, witli 
hangings and other elegant accompaniments. 

Bishop Thoburn came fresh from the North India 
Conference, full of the spirit of work and devotion. 
He is a kind of father to this Conference, and I could 
see at a glance that he felt this paternal relation most 
fully. The mnjority of the preachers are young men, 
but all — Americans, English, and natives — are full of 



216 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

promise and capacity for work. The sixteen of last 
year have been increased to nineteen by the transfer of 
three from America — Henry Jackson, P. M. Buck, and 
W. N". Brewster. One, W. F. Oldhain, has come two 
thousand miles from under the equator at Singapore to 
be present. I think this Conference must cover the 
most territory of any that has ever been organized, be- 
ing from Singapore to Mussoorie, more than thirty de- 
grees of latitude, with a population of over one hundred 
and thirty millions of people. These missionaries, 
counting opportunities as God's calls, should be exceed- 
ingly happy in their very extended call linked with 
God's promises. 

The growth of this Conference during the year, while 
not so fine as the North India, has yet had an increase 
of ten per cent. Such an increase, however, all over 
Methodism, would in a year give us a gain of two hun- 
dred thousand. The general plan of this field, taking 
in Central India, Burma, and Singapore, is to use the 
English-speaking churches, mostly founded by William 
Taylor, as centers and supporters of evangelization 
among the natives. The work has been going on for 
about ten years, though this is only the second Con- 
ference session. There are four districts — the Calcutta, 
Ajmere, Mussoorie, and Burma, the last including Singa- 
pore. During this session, however, Singapore has been 
set oif into a separate mission and Burma made a district 
alone. So small is the Conference that the routine 
business has not taken up all the time, and Bishop 
Thoburn has thus been able to give several admirable 
talks on questions of prime importance in the mission 
field. 

On Sunday, January 20, Bishop Fowler, who in his 
tour of the missions of our Church has been makinof his 



AT THE BENGAL GONFERENGE. 217 

way from the east, was present and preached in the 
forenoon, and in the afternoon Bishop Thoburn did the 
same. It was apparent from these two sermons that 
bishops differ in their modes of work as much as other 
preachers. Both were uplifting sermons. Though 
granted correlative powers by the Discipline, when 
present, the full-fledged bishop, while in this field of a 
missionary bishop, did not exercise his right save when 
invited by Bishop Thoburn to take the chair in his 
necessary absence from it. Possibly a precedent was 
made in this quiet gathering that will be used here- 
after. 

The reports of the English churchee, the native ones, 
the Sunday-schools, hospital work, day-schools, seamen's 
work, women's work, and other fields were almost every- 
where encouraging. Bishop Thoburn, for one, has great 
expectations of this Anglo-Indian work. It has cer- 
tainly opened and sustained stations at many points 
that would not have been entered by us save through 
this means. It must assure these timid natives to 
find the men in the English churches, often their very 
employers and directors, interested in their salvation. 
Doubtless with the episcopal oversiglit that Bishop 
Thoburn can now exercise this work will receive new 
impulse and enlargement. I am so sorry not to see the 
South India Conference, the third one of this vast 
country. 

Four men have been ordained, three as deacons and 
one as elder. A fine class of men is being raised up 
all through our India missions from among the natives, 
and to these in the long run India must look for its 
Christianizing workers. The natives of every country 
have in the past formed the final corps of evangelizers. 
The women had their Conference here the same as at 



218 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

Bareilly, and the reports show successful, aggressive 
energy. Woman's systematic relation to the evangel- 
izing duties of our Church in India is a step or two in 
advance of what is accorded her in America. The 
vexed question of her place in the General Conference 
and other higher councils of the Church may here find its 
solution to show the mother-Church at home how it can 
be done. They are admitted as lay delegates into the 
Central Conference. I thought as I saw them in these 
Conferences that in the way of doing business even the 
men might catch some insight. 

Mr. Flemming was permitted by his official duties to 
have some time in which he could grant favors to his 
guests, which he did in part by taking us around this 
beautiful city. One day he drove me to the junction of the 
Ganges and Jumna, a spot held especially sacred by the 
Hindus. It was two or three miles to it, the drive being 
through the English quarter of the city, to find the 
same magnificent streets of crushed " kunker " that they 
build every- where and call metal roads. On every hand 
were broad yards, or compounds, full of Indian trees 
that retain their large leaves all winter, as our pines and 
firs do. Fine residences in which officials lived were 
embowered among the groves, orchards or profusion of 
vines, roses, bignonias, flashing bourgainvillias, and 
other flowers. Green vegetables, fresh fruit, and 
sweet-scented flowers were in abundance. Among the 
fine buildings was the Government House for the offi- 
cial business of this province. Out across the plains 
was the fort in which an English garrison remained 
during the mutiny, while the city, a stronghold of 
Mohammedans, was held by the natives. This fort is 
ati old one, but sufficiently strong to protect those men 
through those dreadful months. Just below the fort is 



AT TEE BENGAL CONFERENCE. 219 

the junction of the rivers, the Ganges flowing from its 
start far in the Himalayas, the Jumna from its source 
north of Delhi. On the sand fields, which in the season 
of high water are covered many feet, but now are dry 
and pleasant, the Hindus were already gathering pre- 
paratory to the great mela to be held a month later, 
when a hundred thousand or more will be here. Grass 
huts were scattered over the fields and already filled 
with devotees. In some instances pretentious booths or 
tents had flying over them a flag or pennant to distin- 
guish the abode of some priest of peculiar sanctity or 
influence, preempting locality and claims for service 
against the time of greatest influx. The scene re- 
minded me of the age of chivalry in Europe and the 
preparations for some great tournament. I should like 
to be here at the full season to see the crowds, the bath- 
ing, the strange phases of Hindu life, manners, and de- 
votion. 

On the great bund or bank raised to keep the mighty 
Ganges within limits, on a line with which stands 
the fort, is a thing of special interest. It is a brick 
platform, about six feet square and two feet high, on 
which was sitting till two months ago, when he died, 
an old fakir who claimed he had sat there eighty years. 
Mr. Flemming and other residents of Allahabad said 
there was no doubt but he had been sitting there fifty 
years, as he was a very old man. His place was soon 
occupied by another, who will seek to emulate his pre- 
decessor. It is a strange way to win salvation. This 
one was sitting cross-legged, surrounded by half a dozen 
people, who seemed only listlessly standing about while 
he was busy writing, making selections from his sacred 
books. I begged a bit of his writing, and on a piece 
of brown manilla paper I had in my pocket he wrote 



220 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

some Sanskrit sentiment — a direction, he said, of how I 
could win the favor of the gods. This I have treasured 
up among my choice mementoes. As I gave him a 
piece of money to pay for it he told me to lay it on the 
platform on which he was sitting, having refused to 
take it from my hand, and then peremptorily warned 
me not to touch the platform lest I should besmirch his 
sanctity. Under a small tree near by was his charpoy, 
or little bedstead, on which he slept at night, and also 
a few signs of something to eat. 

IsTot far away, almost under the walls of the fort, 
was a prostrate image, of peculiar sanctity to the 
women desiring offspring, the most horrible of any I 
have yet seen. Whether it has always lain prostrate 
I did not learn. It is where the water flows over it at 
every inundation, but each year at low water it is dug 
out of the sand by the priests and then worshiped by 
devotees. Over it was a rude roof of grass and reeds, 
and near by shrines with Mahadeo's peculiar emblems. 
Some priests were preparing this gigantic bod}^, the 
" Mahabeer Khoond," ten feet long by six wide, for 
worship by oiling it and coloring it afresh with red 
ocher. Steps of stone led to it from the level of sur- 
rounding sand, and down these they would not let us 
unbelievers go. The image holds in its left hand the 
figures of two newly-born infants, one in its right hand, 
and has its feet upon another. 

For another drive Mr. Flemming took me to the 
banks of the Jumna, and into the ample grounds of the 
Presbyterian mission. Here are the usual accompani- 
ments of a great mission, homes, schools, gardens, a 
church, orphanage, and the like, while in the heart of 
tiie city, among the bazars, they have just completed a 
fine brick church for the native Christians. This de- 



AT TEE BENGAL CONFERENCE. 221 

nomination, like others from the West, is doing grand 
work for Christ. From the high grounds of this com- 
pound we could see a curious sight — acres of the sand- 
banks and low places along the Jumna planted with 
melons to ripen in March and April before the rains 
raise the water to cover those spaces. The ride through 
the native portion of the city was another of those 
trips of sight-seeing that have fascinated me all along, 
the strange shops, the vast variety of odd things offered 
for sale, the kaleidoscope of faces, costumes, races, con- 
ditions. Here was a native theater built of grass-mats 
and poles, the audience being left to stand or sit 
on the ground. Thence we drove through the public 
gardens just outside the old city walls, to find flowers 
in a profusion that astounds me as I think of the snow- 
drifts and sleigh-rides of New England at this very 
time. To find the Conference rooms and the homes 
massed with banks of luxuriant flowers in the dead of 
winter tends to daze me. Yet but a month ago I felt 
the snow crisping beneath my feet as I stood on the 
top of Cheena Mountain above Naini Tal, more than 
eight thousand feet higher than the sea, while beyond 
the mighty Snowy Range was in j)lain sight, from which 
the snow never departs. 

One morning I arose early to write and was treated 
to a serenade as daylight came that to me was most in- 
teresting. It was not light enough to stop the numer- 
ous screech-owls from their piercing notes; it was light 
enough for cocks and croAvs to awaken and seem deter- 
mined that all else should awake. The apex of the tent 
proved a favorite place for the newly aroused crows, 
and they evidently meant that the Yankee below should 
recall their sweet songs as he went to his native land. 
I do. Then the children in one or two of the servants' 



222 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

houses in the compound vied with the other noises, so 
that the notes taken together made a medley such as 
only the abundant life of India could furnish. 

A beggar came one day while I was busy writing in 
the tent and sat down, nearly naked as he was, in front 
of the door. If I looked up from my work he would 
begin to talk. Those in the tent could understand his 
jargon and told it to me. It was that this poor beggar 
was very hungry, and, rubbing the part mentioned, said 
he had had nothing in his belly since yesterday morn- 
ing. From his lankness I could half believe him. If I 
could give him a pice or two, since I was rich and he 
was poor, he hoped I would get on well in the world, 
would be the happy father of sons, and would rise till 
I was made the governor of the province. By this time 
I deemed the poor fellow deserved a handful of pice, 
and when I gave them to him his blessing on me, in 
which he hoped God would grant me long life and the 
desires of my heart, was sweet and pathetic. One 
feels at first, on seeing the biting misery and want of 
these people, as though he would like to emj^ty his 
pockets among them. But that would be only useless. 

If such scenes tax one's sympathy till his heart aches 
there is in India many an ameliorating scene to gladden 
the heart. To say nothing of the thousand ways in 
which English rule is bringing peace, protection, food, 
education, Christianity, and other elements of a better 
civilization to India, the homes of many of the Euro- 
peans and Americans are a constant object-lesson to 
the keen-eyed natives. At levees and receptions they 
meet women from the West who are considered the 
equals of the Western man, and who are paid a defer- 
ence that is most bewildering to the high-toned native 
gentleman. Music in the homes seems a most fitting 



AT THE BENGAL CONFERENCE. 223 

accompaniment of the tropical luxuriance that can be 
made to abound. The piano-playing by the expert 
Misses Flemming, and singing by them and their 
mother, aided one in interpreting the natural beauty 
around him. It seems strange to me that the Indians 
do not produce better music. They are imaginative, 
poetical, but appear to fail in having preserved a high 
style of music. Possibly their racial deterioration has 
in it the cause of this lack and others. 



224 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA TSIA. 



LETTER XXVIII. 

MEANS OF LOCOMOTION. 

They call me a " globe-trotter " here, and if I am one 
the means of getting around are important considera- 
tions. Hiding on the cars, in spite of the crowds of 
natives and the glare of the sun, is pleasant. Certain 
compartments are reserved for Europeans, and in these 
one can usually find ample room and good accommoda- 
tions. There are really four classes of cars, first-class, 
of the palace-car pretensions, the second-class, "inter- 
mediate," and third-class. I found that most of the 
ofiicials, missionaries, soldiers, and other Western peo- 
ple ride in the intermediate; so I have generally done 
the same. The cars are after the English style of com- 
partments, with an overhanging roof to shield from the 
sun's glare and heat. If only two are in a compart- 
ment for a night-ride they can sj^read out their " i*esai," 
make a cozy bed, and sleep more comfortably than in 
the crowded slee23ers in America. In the interme- 
diate class your fare is about half a cent a mile. I 
believe these trains are the best served of any I have 
ever seen. Usually the engineer, or driver, as they call 
him here, and the conductor, or guard, are British, all 
the rest of the attendants native. It takes almost an 
army of people here to run a train and attend a station, 
but then labor is cheap and people numerous. They 
say that during last year the railways of this country 
carried over fifty-one millions of people, and only two 



MEANS OF LOCOMOTION. 225 

were killed besides those suffering from their own care- 
lessness. The train never leaves a station till the guard 
gets a telegram from head-quarters to go ahead, so that 
collisions are almost unknown. I am constantly amazed 
at the solidity of railways, stations, and other British 
work. The Anglo-Saxon evidently builds and plans 
to stay. Whether the national congresses they are hav- 
ing, with representatives from nearly all parts of this 
vast country, will have any effect on the future of 
British control remains to be seen. 

But railways are not native modes of locomotion. I 
was more interested in the latter, if they were not so 
much used as others. In Bombay I noticed, in addition 
to carriages, or " gharis," and the street-cars, that many 
people rode in bullock-carts. I wanted to ride in one, 
but was almost unconsciously kept from it by Mr. 
Stuntz, one of our pastors there, till, on pressing the 
matter, I was surprised to learn that it was not a 
" tony " way of riding, and that one other than a native 
indulging in it was likely to be despised. That made 
little difference to a peregrinating Yankee like myself, 
60 one day Mr. Stuntz, with Mr. Delamater and me, 
climbed into one to go to breakfast at Miss Dr. Arm- 
strong's. With horror Mr. Stuntz saw one of his stew- 
ards gazing on his audacious pastor, but with true 
republican grit the latter declared he did not care. 
The bullock-cart is on two wheels, the top covered with 
cotton-cloth to keep you from the sun, the driver sitting 
almost on the tongue of the cart between the hips of 
the bullocks. He drives in a slow trot by cries and 
beating the bullocks with a short stick, first on one side 
and then the other, but in case you cry out " Chalo ! 
chalo! " which means "Go! go! " he will catch hold of 
the bullocks' tails, giving them a sharp twist to hurry 
15 



226 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

them along. Since then I have ridden several times in 
bullock-carts of one kind and another. These beasts 
are the small white cattle of India, with a hump on the 
shoulders, and though worked in this and other ways 
are considered sacred, so that a constant outcry goes up 
from the natives against their being killed to meet the 
wants of the beef-eating British. They can despise 
and neglect even to death in the street a man of a dif- 
ferent caste, but carefully tend and savagely protect 
their sacred cattle. In addition to these light carts 
designed especially for travelers there is a very heavy, 
cumbersome two-wheeled one, drawn by the huge, 
slow, thick-bodied, domesticated buffaloes. The clumsy 
wooden wheels, the vast cart-body of bamboo timbers 
reaching between the buffaloes almost to their heads, 
the great loads they can take, the slow, snail-like move- 
ments of the team, the dumpish driver seated on the 
tongue of this vehicle, combine to make a most inter- 
esting sight. Some of the earlier means of locomotion 
among the missionaries was by these mortally slow 
buffalo-carts. 

The horses of India are not numerous, and you are 
glad. For some reason those you do see are miserable 
things, owing to the climate, poor breed, poor care, or 
to some other causes. If you take a carriage in Bom- 
bay or Calcutta, so as to go in " tony " shape you are 
easily ashamed of your horses. In the northern j^arts 
of India little scrawny horses are hitched into a light 
two-wheeled vehicle called an " ekka," which is designed 
to carry one person besides the driver, but in which 
two or more can ride. Like the bullock-cart, it is cov- 
ered with a cotton awning to guard the passengers from 
the sun, and there being no springs the sharp jolting 
keeps one from getting asleep. The American gig may 



MEANS OF LOCOMOTION. 227 

have been fashioned after the ekka, as it is very like 
the Indian vehicle. The latter has the horse close up 
to the driver, the seat for the passenger being a little 
platform about three feet wide, as high as the wheels, 
where one sits with his feet curled up under him, or he 
may let them hang off one side. The means of attach- 
ing this odd carriage to the horse are of the most 
primitive kind — grass or cotton ropes that are liable to 
snap at any unusual jerk or strain. The ekka is balanced 
in such a way that a passenger of considerable weight 
raises up the thills so that they must be kept in place by 
a broad, loose band under the horse's belly. The horses 
seem to be used to this odd arrangement, hence if the 
thills stand at quite an angle upward^ as high as the 
back, they do not get nervous about it. For a cent or 
two an hour among the inland towns and cities one can 
ride in a swift and commodious manner, only it is mostly 
patronized by the natives, so that this is not considered 
tony, especially for Western people. Indeed, the 
only American I have seen riding in one was Professor 
F. W. Foote of the Boys' School at Naini Tal, whose 
back during the ride was supported on the other side of 
the ekka by mine! 

Allied to the ekka is the " tumtum," or dog-cart, as 
they called it in English, that I found in Delhi. It is a 
more pretentious thing than the ekka, since it has a seat 
facing frontwise, and one backward, but it is on two 
wheels all the same. In such a one I rode from the 
city out twelve miles to the famous Khutab Minar and 
back, and as it had springs it was not an unpleasant 
mode of riding. But the driver of such a vehicle in 
this country will not care for his own horse, so in addi- 
tion to that man, who sat beside me on the front seat, 
another one rode on the rear seat whose duty it was to 



228 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA TSIA. 

hold the horse and feed him while we examined the 
Minar. 

With real Yankee curiosity I am seeking a chance of 
trying all modes of riding that I can find. One day at 
the Chandusi mela I saw an empty palanquin being car- 
ried by, and begged of our missionaries to secure a ride 
in it for me. So for a slight consideration the four 
men bearing it gave me a short ride. Much talking 
was done to them by the missionaries, the purport of 
one part at least being unknown to me until later. As 
it was set down on the ground I crawled into it, and 
the men, two at each end, putting their shoulders under 
the long bamboo pole on which the box was suspended, 
lifted me up and started off. They were to carry me to 
a certain large mango-tree in sight, and back again. 
With an habitual sound, combining a sing-song tone and 
a grunt, they kept a kind of mixed time of stepping so 
as to break the dead jolt that would occur if they all 
four kept the step together. It was not a pleasant 
mode of riding in such a narrow box, in which one as 
long as I am could neither stretch out at full length nor 
sit upright. The mango-tree was reached, and they 
turned to go back. It was rougher than the journey 
out, so I inferred they had got a little tired with the 
weighty Yankee; then they jolted as they did not be- 
fore, till, had I known the call to go easier, I should 
have suggested it. To add to the situation, one or two 
of the slats under the bamboo-netting on which I was 
reclining- broke, and I was heartily glad when they 
finally set me down among the missionaries again, who 
appeared quite inquisitive as to how I liked that mode 
of riding. Well, I liked it moderately! It was a week 
before I learned that they directed the coolies to jolt me 
well, but then the palanquin was broken by it. 



MEANS OF LOCOMOTION. 229 

The boats of India, judging from the little that I saw 
of them, are most cumbersome, awkward things. On 
the Ganges at Benares the boats in which they take a 
single passenger to see the burning ghats and other 
sights are large enough to bear up several tons, requir- 
ing the work of half a dozen oarsmen, and then move so 
slowly as to give just the chance of seeing the wonder- 
ful river scene that one wants. To cross the Hugli at 
Calcutta to the Botanical Gardens a boat almost as 
cumbersome as the double-decker at Benares had to be 
chartered. It was longer, and had in the middle a bit 
of cabin six feet square and only four feet high, in 
which one could crouch away from the sight and sun. 
The captain, the steersman, and two oarsmen were the 
crew of this " dingi," and the pay for all this outfit for 
three or four hours was no more than twenty-five or 
thirty cents. The Indian people do not take as natu- 
rally to water as their conquerors, the British, though a 
brave and efficient lot of sailors, called "Lascars," have 
grown up at Madras and other ports of the country 
who are used on all the ships in those seas. I saw one 
of them in his scant clothing hang for two or three 
hours at the very top of the main-mast looking out for 
some sunken rocks on the run between Singapore and 
Hong Kong. 

I have found that the people of Malaysia are better 
boatmen than those of India. At Rangoon there is 
constant demand for the small river-boats to carry 
back and forth to the ship as they lay in the stream. 
In all this country the oarsman stands and pushes his oars 
from him instead of pulling as we do. This enables one 
to look out the way he is going. All about the penin- 
sula of Malaysia they call their boats " sampans." Like 
the Chinese, they paint great eyes on each side of the bow, 



230 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA TSIA. 

and explain the reason to those who seek it thus: "No 
have eyes, how can see ? No can see, how can savey 
[know] ? No can savey, how can sail ? " The Burmese 
boats are flat and shell-like; those of Singapore are 
more sharp and graceful. The Malays, now that they 
have been compelled to give up their piratical practices, 
take to boating of various kind about the harbors that 
are every-where to be found among their islands, inlets, 
and the peninsula. They told me of a boat-race by 
these lively boatmen in the straits between the island 
of Singapore and the main-land. At the appointed 
time they started out with a brisk breeze, and in a sud- 
den squall two of the ten or a dozen capsized, but in a 
few moments the crews had them righted, bailed out, 
the sails set, and the keen racers came in but a short 
way behind their more lucky competitors. 



IN THE MATTER OF SERVANTS. 28 1 



LETTER XXIX. 

rKT THE MATTER OP SERVANTS. 

I AM constantly wondering, as a wandering Yankee 
can be allowed to do, about the servants. All the way 
from home to this country servants, good, bad, and in- 
different, have waited on me, and a gradual decrease 
in efficiency and an increase of numbers have been 
marked as I have passed into Southern Europe, Egypt, 
Palestine, and now here. You would be much in 
doubt whether the many that hang about you and your 
room in Italy were there to serve your wants or to ex- 
pect tips. Here they are multiplied beyond all concep- 
tion, and one needs to be posted to know what to let 
them do. Then a stranger is constantly making mis- 
takes, asking one to do something that he neither can 
nor will do. A division of labor is reached in India of 
which we in the West could never have dreamed, and 
which could be reached only by a long civilization and 
in such a teeming population as that with which this 
country is burdened. Some writer on ancient customs 
has suggested that the beginning of the system of 
caste might have been in this very division of labor, and 
thence at a later period been carried into religious prac- 
tices. I half think now that caste practically has more 
to do with labor than with religion. As generally 
known, a caste of men do one kind of work and that 
only. Such are the customs and notions that one in 
his plans of life-work never rises out of his caste and 



232 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

trade. If his father belonged to the caste of cooks, he 
must be a cook, and never know or practice any other 
duty. If the father was a barber, the son must be one; 
if a sweeper, the son must be that. Hence it happens 
that to complete the necessary lot of servants to keep 
the house and its surroundings in order every Western 
family must have five or eight of them. One must be 
hired to do each kind of work. A cook can cook, 
and do nothing else. Another can wait on the table, and 
do nothing else. The " bheestie " brings the water, the 
sweeper carries off tlie offal and sweeps the rooms and 
walks, the gardener tills the yard and garden, the butler 
is a kind of general overseer of all, and purchases provis- 
ions. Thus, because Western women cannot work at 
housekeeping here, owing to the enervating heat and 
ignorance of ways and utensils, and in the case of mis- 
sionaries their time can be more valuably used, it hap- 
pens that all Western establishments, British officials, 
missionaries, men of business, teachers, and others, 
have what seem to us a very large corps of servants. 
The people on the ground declare that it is a necessity. 
It is impossible to get one's house and food kept and 
prepared in any other way. Now and then some one 
coming from republican America determines that he 
will get along with one man or at the most two ; he 
begins in this way, but things are illy done, or not done 
at all; one more is hired ; later, after some further chaos, 
another; then in despair, all that are required to make 
the establishment progress in the usual Indian way. 
To listen to these experiences is to hear a funny chap- 
ter in one's change of country. Only men do work 
about a Westerner's house. Women never cook, wait on 
a table, or make one's bed. The women may be used 
as nurses in Western families, but in no other way. 



m THE MATTER OF SERVANTS. 233 

But this corps of servants costs little if any more 
than one or two in America. Each one gets two or 
at the most three dollars a month, from six to nine 
rupees, and on such pay boards himself. In rare in- 
stances one of special worth and trustworthiness will be 
paid more. In our country a girl to do housework costs 
more in a week, including the board, than a good Indian 
man-servant for a month; hence the question of money 
is easily solved by comparison in the two countries. 
Here it takes two men to care for a horse and carriage, 
since the coachman will never get the feed and care for a 
horse, nor tie it when waiting on the street. This is all 
the duty of the "syce," a caste looked down upon by 
the drivers. The syce must always go out with the 
carriage to care for the horse, and usually rides stand- 
ing at the rear of the carriage-box, to cry out to the 
people thronging the streets to get out of the way. 
There being no sidewalks in the native cities, and the 
streets being narrow, a team, owing to a habit many 
of the people have of wrapping their turbans close 
about their ears, is constantly in danger of running over 
some one. The syce, in thick-crowded streets, keeps 
crying out. But these two men cost one much less than 
a coachman in America. It is related to me that a few 
years ago one of our ministers was being driven through 
the streets of Moradabad, not by the native coachman, 
but by a well-known evangelist, who has since been 
elected Bishop of Africa. The team, taking a sudden 
fright, ran away. Down through the crowded streets 
they went at full speed, the stalwart driver, who had 
learned some native terms, crying out in the vernacular, 
to those likely to be run over, the idiom, " Save your- 
selves," while the minister sitting in the carriage was 
wringing his hands and praying, "Lord, save us! " 



234 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

These men make good servants, docile, obsequi- 
ous — too much of the latter to suit one fresh from 
home. But, having been in subjection for twenty or 
thirty generations, and in the case of many of the low 
caste longer still, it is no wonder that their spirit and 
subserviency are so debased. These lithe,, agile little 
men make graceful-looking help about a house. Their 
picturesque costumes, added to their intelligent brown 
faces and eagerness to serve, leave a pleasant impres- 
sion on you. But, after all, they are often unreliable. 
Being taught from their childhood's earliest impression 
to steal, they are slow to get over this vice when in 
Western families. One of the favorite gods for chil- 
dren to worship is a diminutive figure of Krishna crawl- 
ing out of his mother's pantry, when a child, with a 
ball of butter represented in his hand, which he had 
stolen. A necessary servant of every considerable es- 
tablishment is a night watchman or policeman, who, 
having slept during the day, keeps awake during the 
night to watch the house, barn, garden, and yard 
against thieves. But for such a policeman every thing 
movable would be stolen. These watchmen keep up a 
loud calling out through the night to scare away the 
thieves. The one at the establishment of Rev. A. J. 
Maxwell, our Book Agent at Lucknow, had his mat 
spread under the porch against my door, where I could 
hear him coming and going at all hours of the night. 

In addition to these things Indian servants are so slow 
that they tax most severely our Western patience. A 
thing needing to be done about the house that in one 
of our homes would take but a few minutes here will 
take five or ten times as long. If one is in a hurry 
to get started away, or to have a meal prepared, it is 
almost impossible to obtain quickness of movement. 



IN THE MATTER OF SERVANTS. 285 

Those long in the country get used to it, but such of us 
as are freshly here are sometimes much annoyed. If some- 
thing arises that is out of the usual course of things the 
cook or butler or coachman can by no means meet the 
emergency. They have been so used to doing things a 
certain way and at a certain time that they cannot 
well do it at any other way or time. In spite of all 
these drawbacks, however, the general impression is of 
good service done by these people. They are capable 
of strong attachments, and often inspire much love and 
respect from their employers. It is said that English 
officials become so pleased with these servants, and find 
so great difference between them and those in England 
when they return there, that some of them throw up 
their home establishments in disgust and return to India, 
where they can get better service. This I have noticed, 
that they are not willing to have you do any thing. At 
the hotels they do not want you to roll up your bedding; 
before you know it one is on his knees in front of you 
to tie up your shoes; in your room, at the table, every- 
where, they watch your wants and desires and try to 
forestall your doing things for yourself. They are jeal- 
ous of your reputation as a gentleman, even declaring, 
as you try to carry home a bundle, that gentlemen do 
not do such things as that; so you must allow them to 
do it. 

But these very fellows who are so obsequious to you 
are keen and sharp about their own place and prece- 
dence. The caste system is carried into all of these 
Western homes. If the servants are not converts to 
Christianity the bother of caste is sometimes very annoy- 
ing to the family. One will by no means do the work 
or service belonging to another. Then they are quite 
apt to assume importance from the supposed dignity 



236 A WINTER IK INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

and importance of the one they serve. While a guest 
at Bishop Thoburn's, in Calcutta, I wanted a dozen 
oranges for use on the ship to Rangoon, and Mrs. Tho- 
burn sent her butler with my money to procure them 
and at the same time to buy herself a loaf of bread. He 
bought both, and there was no lowering of his dignity 
or place to bring home the oranges, but there would be 
such degradation if he brought the bread, so he hired a 
coolie, always to be found waiting for such jobs, to 
carry the single loaf home in the big basket on his 
head. 

From the first I have been greatly interested in the 
water-carriers or "bheesties." They are a separate 
caste whose industries consist in furnishing water to 
houses and for other needs. They carry the water in 
skin bottles, slung across the back. This bottle is made 
of a goat-skin, the body having been taken out through 
the neck, so the skin is nearly whole, and has the hair 
left on till it wears off with use. At railway stations, 
in the cities and houses, every- where, you will see these 
men. They sling the goat-skin across the back in such 
a manner that the neck, which forms the place for put- 
ting in and letting out the water, is held on the left 
side under the arm, and this neck orifice is grasped by 
the hand or tied up with a string. If you want water 
they loose their grip or the string and give you a cup- 
ful or a pailful. The water for the American houses 
and mission establishments is all brought to the house 
by these bheesties. If water has to be brought from a 
well half a mile away, as is often the case, the work of 
the water-carrier can be seen to be no light duty. At- 
tached to every sleeping apartment is a bath-room in 
which sit two or three great earthen jars of water, kept 
full by the industrious carrier. The water in such jars 



m THE MATTER OF SERVANTS. 237 

becomes very cold during the chill air of the winter 
nights. It is a pleasant disturbance in the early morn- 
ing to hear the gentle bheestie come into your bath- 
room and pour this out, and then, as you are dozing, to 
hear the silvery gurgle, as it is emptied from the Avater- 
skin into the jars, of some warmer water that he has 
brought from a deep well in which during the cold 
night it has retained much of the heat poured upon it 
by the hot sun through the day before. These men 
have another duty thnt is interesting. None of the 
cities have sprinkling-carts, a thing greatly needed dur- 
ing the rainless winters, but compensate for such lack 
with the bheesties. They become street-sprinklers. 
From some tank, well, or w^ater-pipe the bheestie will fill 
the water-skin, then hurry to his appointed spot, and with 
his legs bare, to endure the wetting better, swing the 
bottle Tinder his left arm, and, holding the neck with the 
left hand, flirt the water one way and the other with 
the right hand. In this way they sprinkle the streets 
very effectually and rapidly as things go in India. As 
you pass along you are safer from a shower-bath than 
you are in America with the huge '' monitors " in use. 

The carpenters, furniture-makers, weavers, black- 
smiths, and other crafts do their work in little shops 
open to observers or on the very edge of the narrow 
streets. Here you will see a turning-lathe worked by 
hand with the motive-power sitting on the ground pull- 
ing ropes back and forth, while on the other side sits the 
turner, with his diminutive chisels. Axes are almost as 
thick and cumbersome as the stone ones made by our 
prehistoric ancestors. Short crooked saws are used, and 
to saw planks they set up the log on one end, leaning 
over, one man sitting on the ground below it, the other 
standing above the slanting side. Many of the kinds 



238 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA TSIA. 

of wood are highly colored and capable of fine carvings 
and polish. In some cities they do most beautiful brass- 
work, Moradabad being noted for its elegant designs 
worked in brass and jet. In many places cotton and 
paper mills and other industries after European methods 
are being established, with much advantage to the poor 
people. 



THE FUTURE OF METHODISM IN INDIA. 239 



LETTER XXX. 

THE FUTURE OF METHODISM IN INDIA. 

To meet our missionaries in India is an inspiration. 
They are boundless in hope, and point to what has al- 
ready been done. They talk about seeing tens and 
hundreds of thousands of native Christians, and men 
use these numbers who have already spent here half of 
the possible years of their labors. Such men as Parker 
and Thoburn and Waugh are the ones most assured. 
After looking over their reasons for these expectations 
I think them sound, and place my hopes along-side 
theirs. 

Look at their successes — not an unbroken course, to 
be sure, since some mistakes have occurred, as is com- 
mon to things human. Thus, at the beginning of their 
work in North India they adopted opinions from mis- 
sionaries already a long time in the field, that to break 
up idolatry, caste, and prejudice, they must get the 
high caste people converted first, and that the lower 
castes, always influenced and directed by the upper 
ones, would then be certain to follow. But their suc- 
cess among the Brahmans and other high caste people 
being poor, the same as other denominations, they are 
turning more to the low castes, whom for some years, 
especially in the North India Conference territory, they 
have found accessible. They tried to found Christian 
villages, buying or getting the grant of a piece of 
land, and gathering the families of the converts there 



240 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

in order to protect them from the persecutions of tlieir 
neighbors when in a village only one or two converts 
had been made. But these villages all perished, save 
one, Panahpur, not far from Shahjehanpore. Now 
they find that it was doubtless God's design to leave 
these converts among their heathen friends in order to 
open new places of work and to be an attractive light 
in the darkness and unrest. By this means a vast num- 
ber of new places are now opening, many more than 
they can enter. And having got started with preach- 
ing, schools, hospitals, and other means in some caste, 
as farmers, leather-workers, or sweepers, the work is 
rapidly spreading through that caste until, in some in- 
stances, great sections of them seek Christ. It is not 
uncommon that twenty or forty seek baptism at one 
time. It is like the success of the Baptists among the 
Telugus and Karens. Our missionaries in the North 
India Conference are now reaching a high caste with 
much success, the Thakurs, a caste of former warriors. 
But this they have learned, which they did not think at 
first, and which some in the United States have not 
yet learned, that these low caste men and women make 
as good preachers, teachers, helpers, Bible readers, and 
the like, as the high caste, for their hard work and sharp 
struggle to live seem rather to have developed their facul- 
ties, instead, as might have been supposed, of lowering 
them in the intellectual scale. They now tliink India is 
to be regenerated from the bottom upward. Sir W. W. 
Hunter, long in India, and whose many books on this 
country compelled him to study India in special ways, 
has recently said, in an address delivered in Great Brit- 
ain, that there are about fifty millions of these low caste 
people in India, and that these, being specially suscep- 
tible to missionary effort, should be directly sought after 



THE FUTURE OF METHODISM IN INDIA. 241 

by the missionaries. When these people of the low 
castes are converted to Ciirist and educated and sent 
out to do various kinds of missionar}^ work they are re- 
spected by the natives of all castes. 

All the missionaries, both American and native, con- 
sider the presence of a national bishop one sign of fut- 
ure success. Though the matter was proposed and 
agitated at least a dozen years ago and since, possibly 
God and the Church were waiting for the right time 
and the right man. It seems as though these had both 
come. Methodism here is wise, strong, successful, and 
is getting intrenched all over India and beyond in Ma- 
laysia, there being now three Conferences and one or- 
ganized mission. Other denominations are looking upon 
us as having in our movements " the swing of con- 
quest; " they are coming to respect our plans of working 
among the low castes as well as high castes, and our 
splendid schools, among both natix e and English-speak- 
ing pupils, are their admiration; the natives appreciate 
the push and hot-hearted ways of the Methodists. Then 
there is a universal feeling that in Bishop Thoburn they 
have the right man for success. He is pious, simple, 
intense, has had very great success among the English 
and natives, having won a place in their esteem and 
confidence that would take a new man long years to 
gain, while to the two southern Conferences and the 
Malaj^sian work he already held a paternal relation. 
His welcome is deep and unfeigned. With such an 
episcopal supervisor on the ground all the time, mis- 
takes in debts, neglect of entering on new work, the 
admittance of inefficient men, and other elements of 
weakness and disaster can, it is hoped, be reduced to a 
minimum. 

Tlie work of the women is carrying assurance that 



242 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

they are to have, most wisely, a prominence in our 
church development here not accorded them in other 
than missionary fields. The Woman's Foreign Mis- 
sionary Society workers and the wives of the mission- 
aries are proving their call of God, It is j^robable that 
Paul had organized workers among the women, and in 
this respect, as in others, Methodist missions are getting 
up to apostolic heights. The American and English- 
speaking women are organized for business into a Con- 
ference sitting while the men have theirs, hearing re- 
ports, planning for new work, and doing many things 
that carry forward the grand advance of the cause. The 
deaconess homes are already in operation here, with 
hopes in the hearts of the most experienced missionaries 
as well as others that this experiment is fraught with 
vast good to Christianity in India. 

A spirit of unity can now be fostered among the 
scattered Conferences and stations that could not as 
well be pressed before. There was a chance that the 
two methods, self-support and heavy help from the 
Missionary Society, might breed petty jealousy; com- 
parisons not in the right spirit could be made, one sec- 
tion of the work being old and organizing grand suc- 
cess, another crude and not so brilliant in immediate 
results; little causes of fretting and fiiction might grow 
up with no one who was looking over the whole field 
to point them out and successfully suggest their re- 
moval; the change of American and native workers 
from one part of the field to another as the exigencies 
would seem to require; the inability to settle questions 
at once that sometimes require immediate action — all 
these things and others can now be adjusted and cor- 
rected as never before. There are at least fourteen 
nations besides tribes in India, and our work is already 



i 



TEE FUTURE OF METHODISM IN INDIA. 243 

being carried on in nine different languages, but the 
work of a General Conference — as the Central Confer- 
ence, now held every two years, must some time come 
to be — will always be conducted in English, so that this 
wonderful language is to be a connecting bond among 
the diverse nations, peoples, and Conferences of our 
work. The future of that Central Conference in India, 
acting as a unifying power in educational, publishing, 
and other interests, must be very important. The whole 
situation is somewhat like that in England during the 
seventh century, when Archbishop Theodore was sent 
from Rome to Canterbury, whose synods and councils 
of a unifying Church led the way to a national unity in 
speech, life, and law not before possible. It may be 
that God has much future good to India's national life 
along the lines of our church unity. 

The press also bids fair to be a potent good in the 
Md of our unity and usefulness. Methodism at home 
knows too well the w^orth of this agency to question its 
importance. More than ever the three presses here 
can work together and flood the country with 
products along evangelical lines. The schools are 
full of encouragement, growing every-where, almost 
every one a success in conduct, numbers, and work 
done, while those in debt are generally successful in 
prospect of getting out of it. While some other 
missions are questioning if they will not give up 
their system of founding schools our own is founding 
new ones and wdsely making them centers of broad 
beneficent evangelism. The two colleges at Luck- 
now, the one for boys and the one for girls, are cer- 
tain to pass soon from the embryo stage to one of lively 
usefulness. 

The missionaries speak with modesty of another phase 



244 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

of work which was sadly lacking among other denom- 
inations until we came on the ground — the revival spirit. 
But genuine old-fashioned revivals such as are common 
in America have for years been accepted by several 
of the other missions as well as ours. In our ow^n they 
are sought for every-where. When I saw at one altar 
service at Chandusi camp-meeting thirty-three forward 
for prayers I knew that Methodist ways of salvation 
were in good use. The w^ork of William Taylor was in 
this way, among others, of immense worth. This shoot 
of Methodism does not fail in producing fruits of the 
genuine American and Wesleyan kind. 

The question of English-speaking work is an im- 
portant one. It touches the English and Anglo-Indian 
alike. In it those people of greatest experience here see 
great promise of success. These people need salvation 
as much as any others, but they had been sadly neg- 
lected till our advent. They usually speak the ver- 
nacular of the region in which they grow up as well as 
English, and by that are fitted to become grand hel^Ders. 
English speech is to be more and more important as 
a general language in India. All college-educated na- 
tives speak and read it. This work has given us 
some splendid workers, with promise through our 
schools of many more. Such men and their wives have 
come from the English work as these: Oldham, super- 
intendent of the mission at Singapore; Gilder, Curties, 
Morton, Dennis Osborne, Meik, De Souza, Jeffries, 
Dr. Dease, Knowles, Plomer, and others. It has given 
us several strategic points over India, besides Rangoon 
and Singapore. The policy will yet prevail of uniting 
the English and native work at the same station, a 
policy not yet made very successful, but sure to come. 
Already the opening English work has made native 



THE FUTURE OF METHODISM IX INDIA. 245 

work possible at several points, though kept under dif- 
ferent control. 

Above all, Methodism must keep full of the spirit of 
the Master. With the love for souls that he had, with 
a love for one another and for God that is a consuming 
power, the future of our work in India has sublimest 
prospects. 



246 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 



LETTER XXXI. 

THE METHODIST PRESS IN INDIA. 

Among tlie forces wisely set at work in India for 
Christianity is the press. Perhaps every body at home, 
excepting myself, knew how great and important these 
plans had become and how successfully they were be- 
ing carried out, though they do tell here of one of the 
bishops who came, held Conferences, and returned 
home to say that we had no mission press in India ! I 
suppose I had glanced at the reports made in the Meth- 
odist papers of America, or the glowing words of Dr. 
Butler and others who have descanted upon this phase 
of our work ; but its greatness did not become apparent 
until I saw it with ni}^ own eyes. At Lucknow, instead 
of seeing a set of three or four rooms with a dozen or 
fifteen men at work, as I supposed, I found I stood in 
a building having a wide front on the most beautiful, 
important business street of the city, two of its en- 
trances being leased by our Book Concern for retail 
purposes, the other three rooms in front being rented to 
native gentlemen for stores, by which an income of one 
hundred and forty rupees a month is realized. As you 
go from the front of our building toward the rear you 
enter a second suite, in which the agent, Allen J. Max- 
well, a graduate of Boston Theological School, has his 
business offices, in which alone he has to use nearly as 
many clerks and accountants as I expected would num- 
ber the whole establishment. Further back one begins 



THE METHODIST PRESS IN INDIA. 247 

to get a sight of the reaches of store-rooms, press-rooms, 
type-setters' rooms, and so on, until the vista is extended 
across a whole block, where there is an entrance from 
the street on that side also. Possibly the new buildings 
of our parent Book Concern recently completed on 
Fifth Avenue, New York, have less ground-space than 
our Book Concern at Lucknow, though tliose run up 
more stories than these, since in India few business 
blocks do transactions save on the ground floor. The 
force of workmen Agent Maxwell now uses is about one 
hundred and twenty-five. This corps of men is not as 
eflicient and productive as the same number of work- 
men would be in America, though it gives a glimpse of 
the large amount of work to be done; and the work of 
the press is so increasing that even this number must 
constantly be enlarged. 

There are printed and issued books, j^eriodicals, 
pamphlets, tracts, school-books, hymn-books, Sunday- 
school lessons and helps, and the like. The demands on 
such a publishing house by the acute, awakening Indian 
are very great. It is a critical time to the people of India, 
as, brushing against Western ideas, spirit, and civiliza- 
tion, they begin to think and act more for themselves. 
Consider the Brahmo-Somaj, the Arya-Somaj, the Na- 
tional Congress, and other mental and spiritual ferment. 
Just now the masses of pure, right, and instructive lit- 
erature poured out by our India press is of special 
worth. India can be mightily moved in this way. The 
common people are learning to read. Mr. Prautch, of 
Bombay, sold tracts the past summer by the ten thou- 
sand on " The Resurrection," " The Christ," and kin- 
dred themes, by hawking them through the streets, 
which the people read with avidity. As a help to our 
missionaries the press is taking a prominent place. The 



248 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

early workers felt this, and with a liaiid-press, setting 
the type themselves and doing the press work, they be- 
gan by counting their issues by the thousand pages 
where they now count them by the million. 

In Lucknow our press puts forth its products in six 
tongues — Hindi, Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Urdu and 
Roman-Urdu, and English. India must be largely 
Christianized through the native speech; hence the 
English yields to the vernacular in importance and in 
the amount put forth by the press. Much lithograph- 
ing has to be done, that process as well as type being 
used in Persian, Arabic, and Urdu. I have among my 
choice things a Church History made here by the litho- 
graphic process. 

The buildings and land, stocks, books on hand, presses, 
type, and other things, unite in making a property 
worth about one hundred and thirty-five thousand 
rupees. Most of this was accumulated by the business 
tact and push of Rev. Thomas Craven, now stationed at 
Naini Tal. A part of it is in the form of endowment, 
which, judiciously invested, enables the press to scatter 
free at least two million pages of Christian literature a 
year, besides helping the other publications. The out- 
put during the year past has been more than twenty- 
five million pages. Owing to cheap labor books can be 
produced at the lowest prices. A compositor can be 
had for ten cents a day. The sales of books amount to 
twenty-five thousand rupees a year. The prospect is 
for enlargement every way. The periodicals take a 
prominent place. The Womaii's Friend is printed in 
Hindi and in Urdu in this press, in Bengali at Calcutta, 
and in Tamil at Madras. It is endowed with |25,000. 
The' C/iild7'e7i*s Fi'ioid and Star of India are also suc- 
cessful. Indians Young People^ illustrated and issued 



THE METHODIST PRESS IN INDIA. 249 

fortnightly, is on a pajdng basis, and has the largest 
circulation of any paper in India save one. 

The Calcutta press has not been so successful finan- 
cially as the one at Lucknow. Its cential purpose was 
to publish the Indian Witness. This valuable paper, 
with a list of over a thousand, is doing much good. 
Unfortunately, a debt has accumulated until its weight 
is now most crushing. Efforts recently made to sell out 
the press having failed, those in charge think Providence 
is clearly pointing to its retention, and so are trying 
otherwise to pay the debt. A sum covering a third of 
the debt has been borrowed at a low rate of interest; 
about twelve thousand rupees were pledged at the late 
session of the Bengal Conference, so that light appears 
ahead. A plan is being pushed to endow subscriptions 
for the Indian Witness at one hundred and twenty-five 
rupees a copy, and as many of these are coming in 
their products are aiding at this pinch. 

A dream of the Methodists of India was to found a 
great publishing house at Calcutta, as that city is the 
commercial and political capital of India, with the one 
at Lucknow and at Madras as branches. If this dream 
is realized it must be in the distant future. In the 
meantime, by careful internal management, by rigid re- 
duction of expenses and wise business conduct, the press 
can be made to pay its own expenses and possibly aid 
in reducing its own debt. The business insight of 
Agent Maxwell, of Lucknow, is being called into use in 
giving direction and skillful business methods. 

The work done by this press is quite extensive. Be- 
sides the Wit?iess it publishes two papers in Bengali, 
one of them being in the interest of the zenana work; 
Sunday-school lessons and helps, also in Bengali; all 
kinds of books that it can secure contracts for, school- 



250 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

books, dictionaries, and others in English and Bengali. If 
the debt were paid the property owned would be worth 
full thirty-live thousand rupees, and it has ample room 
for all the work likely to arise for some time to come. 
They employ about seventy men, though that need not 
convey the impression any more than at Lucknow of 
the amount of work seventy men would do in an Amer- 
ican publishing house. They have five steam presses, 
and some lithographing is done in Bengali. For some 
time they have had a permanent job of printing tracts 
for European societies, and still have it. If the present 
plans to pay the debt succeed there is a fine prospect 
before the mission press at Calcutta. The business of 
the city is immense, and, being what it is, the city must 
carry along with its growth any successful business en- 
terprise in it. 

The Madras press, the smallest of our plants for 
press purposes, has a history such as the other two 
might envy. Dr. Rudisill, being a practical printer, 
bought a small press four years ago, and set at work 
himself. It appears to have been his purpose to do two 
things at least in the management — first-class work, and 
keep out of debt. Persisting in these admirable pur- 
poses, the results are most cheering. The press has a 
name for good and reliable work. It has not done as 
much printing as the other presses, and does not now. 
It has twenty or thirty men at work, with a steadily in- 
creasing outlook for future and greater success. The 
Sunday-School Union and Tract Society of our Church 
at home has made Dr. Rudisill grants of aid to produce 
their publications in the vernaculars, which have greatly 
aided the press. Just now it is getting recognition at 
home, so that some important help toward its endow- 
ment is being secured. Besides English this press puts 



THE METHODIST PRESS IN INDIA. 251 

out its products in Tamil, TeUigu, and Kanarese. It 
prints books, periodicals, Sunday-school lessons and 
helps, with many other things. Each of these vernacu- 
lars is spoken by a dozen or twenty millions of people, 
these three nations being of the Dravidi:in stock, one of 
the aboriginal races of India. They take kindly to 
Christianity. The success of the Baptists among the 
Telugus shows what other Churches may accomplish 
among the millions of this and kindred races. "1 he 
question concerning the future of these aboriginal races 
in India is a curious one. These outcasts, pariahs, low 
castes — for all these are mostly of those races — have 
been before the Hindus in accepting Christianity with 
great alacrity, so that they are getting nearly all the 
benefits of Western civilization, while the Hindus of 
high caste are getting only a small part by refusing the 
Gospel of the New Testament. Will the aboriginal 
Turanians yet take precedence in this wonderful land 
of races and changes ? So hopeful is Bishop Thoburn 
of those three peoples in South India and of our work 
which is spreading among them that he begins to talk 
of the time when We shall have three Conferences there, 
one in each — Telugu, Tamil, and Kanarese. God grant 
he may live to see his hopes realized ! He says of the 
press, " I consider that the most transcendently im- 
portant interest next to preaching the Gospel is the 
press in our mission work." 



252 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA 7SIA. 



LETTER XXXir. 

AT CALCUTTA. 

The run from the Allahabad Conference to Calcutta 
used twenty- four hours, but it was in good company. 
Bishop Thoburn, Superintendent Oldham and wife, 
McCoy, Warne, Craig, and their wives, Mr. Brewster, 
Miss Wisner, and others made up a charming party. 
The country down the Gangetic valley was level, with 
some of it wild, but much of it green with growing 
wheat, and other parts fixed into rice-fields. These are 
made by forming a small dike or bank on all sides, so 
that the water necessary for this cereal to grow in can 
be retained. Palms of two or three species increased, 
and also impenetrable thickets of bamboo. After a 
chilly night-ride, in which our ever-attendant roll of 
bedding, or resai, was a most valuable accompaniment, 
we came at early morning to the city of Kali and were 
soon at the various places to which we were assigned in 
the homes and hearts of the missionaries. 

Methodism has a strong hold in Calcutta. There is 
the English-speaking Methodist Church, the first to be 
started in this city under the labors of William Taylor 
and Bisliop Thoburn, now with a membership of three 
hundred. This has proved the parent of all the rest. 
There is a hopeful work among the Hindustani people ; 
one very successful among the Bengalis, the main part 
of the natives in this portion of India ; the Seaman's 
Bethel, doing a grand work tor Western sailors ; 



AT CALCUTTA. 25S 

a boys' school that should be more successful than it is ; 
the largest of all the girls' schools of the Woman's For- 
eign Missionary Society, and a printing-press, with the 
Indimx Witness as its principal issue, that is doing good 
work for Christianity. Last of all, the deaconess 
home is just beginning its existence, with much hope 
that this and kindred ones established at different places 
in India will prove a pleasing success. This is a most 
hopeful start for the Church in the capital of India. My 
first anxiety was to see all of these things possible in the 
three or four days before sailing for Rangoon and 
Singapore. After that I ran around to see other sights. 
The first was to the temple of the goddess Kali, after 
whom the city is named. The drive, with three other 
Americans, Misses Black and Wisner and Mr. Brewster, 
was across the wide park surrounding the English fort, 
which is situated on the bank of the Hoogly River, the 
park being kept free of houses the better to use the 
cannon of the fort in case of need. Thence we went 
through the native part of the city, along crowded ba- 
zars, narrow, dirty streets made muddy by a recent 
shower, to the south part of the city. As we came near 
the temple the bazar was full of flowers, sweets, and 
other things for selling to those going into the temple. 
Half a dozen temple attendants ran officiously ahead of 
onr carriage as we approached to secure the job of show- 
ing us around. We selected two of them, while the at- 
tention we attracted was extensive. As we entered the 
temple area I noticed the headless bodies of kids being 
carried out, having been offered at the shrine of the 
bloody Kali. The natives, who eat no other meat, do 
eat these kids and other things offered to this goddess. 
We were shown first an almost unnoticed image of 
Shiva the Destroyer ; but this being located in a deep 



254 A WINTER IK INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

recession of the building, and not being permitted to ap- 
proach nearer than the first steps of the portico, we could 
see little of his lordship. A lone worshiper or two, an 
attendant priest, a few flowers and sweets were all the 
signs of interest. 

But it was al] different at the contiguous Kali shrine. 
As in the other temple, we were not permitted to go very 
neai* the figure of this deity, but were granted a view 
from a distance. A continuous stream of devotees, men 
and women, was going in at one side of the shrine, pass- 
ing in front of the image, and going out at the other 
side. Loud screams and supplications by those passing 
the goddess were joined with the half-frenzied cries af 
those about the paved yard, till a din was made that 
heightened the strangeness of this scene of active hea- 
thenism. That the noble Aryan race could descend to 
such abject worship as this was a great surprise to me. 
Possibly our ancestral worship of Woden, Thor, or 
Freya was as strange as this. We unbelievers could see 
only glimpses of the goddess through the passionate 
throngs crowding and praying in front of her, though 
our two guides would compel them to stand aside once 
in a while to let us see. She was hideous, black and red, 
with three eyes, as the guides kept telling us in their 
imperfect English. We could also see two hands reach- 
ing out. When we essayed to join the throng which 
passed in front and close to the goddess Ave were per- 
emptorily forbidden and hindered by the guides. 
Priests were beside the image to receive the presents of 
money, sweets, flowers, and other things. As the dev- 
otees came out of the temple each was adorned with a 
wreath of bale and marigold flowers hung around his 
neck, and these, I noticed, were worn about the streets 
of the city. As I was getting a position for better 



AT CALCUTTA. 255 

observation under an arched space my shadow came near 
being cast on the food of a dirty fakir sitting on the 
floor to eat his dinner, when he yelled loudly to me to 
look out lest my shadow should defile his food. 

After being shown some of the sights, and every-where 
being pestered for money by the crowds, we found that 
m another part of the court preparations were made to 
sacrifice some kids. The rest of the party did not want 
to see this, but I did, and so watched the proceedings. 
Two or three priests, each holding a kid securely under 
his arm, came to the place already soaked with blood, 
where the deed was done. The head was inserted into 
a forked post, a pin slid above it, the body of the vic- 
tim drawn back, making the neck taut, which was then 
cut oif with a single quick stroke by a priest who used 
a long hooked knife almost as heavy as a butcher's 
cleaver. They said it was considered a bad omen if the 
head was not severed from the body with a single 
stroke. Here was a concourse of the thugs, the priests 
of Kali, looking like a villainous set indeed, whose high- 
est wish would be to offer better things at the shrine of 
their deity than goats and sheep, no less victims than 
human beings. But for the strong arm of relentless 
British law they might have offered us that day instead 
of kids. For these priest-thugs, as late as the time of 
the Sepoy rebellion, did offer such victims, but this being 
proved against a group of them they were executed like 
common murderers, since which time they have mostly 
given it over — mostly, I say, for the missionaries and resi- 
dents surmise that even yet some of the dead bodies found 
in secluded nooks are human sacrifices made by the thugs 
in spite of law and modern light. It was with a sense 
of relief that we came from that spot of din and blood, 
which had also such awful associations and memories. 



256 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA TSIA. 

A drive alone to the well-known Zoological Gardens 
of Calcutta was one of the rich afternoons to a transient 
sight-seer. The assistant superintendent, a native, Mr. 
B. L. Dutt, on ray asking in vain for a catalogue of the 
animals and birds, kindly went with me several hours, 
explaining much that I could not otherwise have known. 
In this garden I found a very full representation of the 
fauna of rich tropical Asia. Here was the white pea- 
cock, as fond of his faded feathers as those who retain 
the brightest tints ; strange monkeys — one, the Hoolock 
gibbon, from Assam, whose exceedingly loud cries could 
be heard in the farthest corner of the garden ; the nyl- 
ghau, or " blue cow " of India, a thick, heavy deer com- 
mon in the jungles ; a curious cow from Chittagong called 
the gyat ; the hog-deer, as thick-set as a goat, or more 
swine-like ; the wild hog, black and heavy-built, and the 
two-horned, hairy-eared rhinoceros. The birds were also 
fine. The famous mandarin duck from China was the 
most gorgeous of its kind I have ever seen. Toucans, 
cockatoos, herons, red macaws, the argus pheasant, jun- 
gle fowls from which our common barn-yard fowl came, 
and many others were there. In a pond was the snake- 
fish, from Lake Baikal, that would swim around on the 
top of the water, with its eyes out of it. Some Bactrian 
dromedaries, patient and evidently of the most hardy 
endurance, as their country would demand, slowly 
munched the hay given them. A department was given 
up to the cat family, and in it were various species, 
from the possible wild progenitor of the house-cat to the 
royal Bengal tiger and majestic African lion. Among 
the tigers was one that had a bad reputation. He was 
accused of having eaten three hundred people before he 
was captured. His capture was accomplished by luring 
him into a pit, where he was wound up in nets and 



AT CALCUTTA. 257 

ropes till he could be handled with safety. The native 
prince in whose dominions he was taken presented him 
to the British authorities. He was a gigantic fellow, 
about twelve feet long, a breast fully twenty-four 
inches deep, and a forearm that would girth twenty 
inches. His dulled teeth showed his great age, and his 
fierceness was awful. I stayed till the time of feeding 
the animals their meat. Most of them ate it at once ; 
but this aged sinner crouched over his food and would 
not eat it while people were looking at him. He would 
now and then rise, and with terrific growls, his battery 
of glittering teeth all uncovered, suddenly dash to the 
front of his cage and strike out through the bars with 
his mighty paw as far as he could reach at the people 
looking on. All would scud backward from the iron 
rail that kept us three or four feet from the cage, and I 
did so once or twice ; but when I saw he could not reach 
as far as that I stood still to mark his rage and actions. 
Finally the crowd went away, and I lingered to see 
those fine beasts that I should never see again. The 
old tiger wanted me to go away so he could eat his beef, 
but I still stayed. I thought, too, that I could stand 
there and gaze at him no matter how sudden might be 
his useless spring toward me. Growling at me in 
deep but moderate basso, he suddenly sprang with but 
a step or two full at me with a withering snarl, dashing 
against the iron bars, and reaching one of his great paws 
through them, and I, with all my self-congratulatory 
nerve and certainty that I could endure any menace as 
long as I knew I was absolutely safe, suddenly jumped 
back, with a big, dismayed thump in my heart. A fine 
black bear from America looked good to me, and such 
was my patriotic sentiment toward any thing from the 
great republic that I wanted to hug his bruinship, and I 
17 



258 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

have no doubt he would have been fully willing to re- 
ciprocate the act, seeing I also was an American. 

Another day was spent in the Botanical Gardens. 
These are on the west side of the Hoogly River, while 
the city is on the east side. As the draw-bridge was 
open I had to cross far below the city on a " dingi," or 
small ferry-boat, directly into the gardens. If the day 
before I had obtained extensive knowledge of the fauna 
in the Zoological Gardens I here added to my knowl- 
edge of the flora. This garden, founded by General 
Kyd, of whom there is a fine statue in the middle part of 
the grounds, is located in a tropical forest, the great 
native trees, palms, bamboos, vines, and the like form- 
ing deepest mazes and most entrancing drives, while 
the places cleared away for flower-gardens, parks, fern- 
eries, and imported species of plants, are like open 
fields in the woods. One of the palms brought from 
tropical America had a body shaped like some Greek 
column, and almost as smooth as polished marble. An 
avenue of these was like a long colonnade. The ma- 
hogany trees, also imported from America, have already 
become a hundred feet high and two feet in diameter. 
In these damp tropical forests the trees and plants seem 
to grow the year round, since they never shed their 
leaves like trees in a temperate climate, but broad- 
leaved foliage, looking like maples, basswood, and elms, 
remaining green during the winter months the same as 
the pine and spruce in America. Arbors for ferns, 
orchids, bignonias, dwarf palms, and the like were made 
by being lightly covered over with boughs and bam- 
boos. 

The great banyan tree wholly took me. Every trav- 
eler seeing the sights of Calcutta is cited to these gar- 
dens, the most attractive feature of which is this tree. 



AT CALCUTTA. 259 

Of course, I followed the wake of other people and saw 
it. I had seen other banyan trees, though none very- 
large, yet was not wholly prepared for this one. Being 
alone in the wide gardens, with no bothersome guide or 
good friends determined to show all the sights, I came 
upon this giant fig-tree unexpectedly; so I had all the 
sensations of a genuine surprise. As I passed up a long, 
straight stretch of wood through tall trees, the banyan, a 
hillock of green, stood in an open space before me. 
The general outline of the top was oval, the branches 
from the main stem reaching highest, with a gradual 
shading off toward the outer edges. All the branches 
are gnarled, huge, crooked, the whole impression being 
of gigantic force pressed into the growth of this strange 
tree. I first went to the main stem, and there posted 
up was a statement of its dimensions. It is over a hun- 
dred years old ; the body, not a solid stem, but an 
aggregation of sections, is forty-two feet in circumfer- 
ence, the crown eight hundred and fifty feet around, 
the aerial roots numbering two hundred and thirty-two. 
This enormous growth has come to pass by the branches, 
when a distance from the main body, dropping down 
the aerial roots, which, becoming fastened to the soil, 
grow vigorously, thicken fast, and act in the double 
capacity of a brace below and the beginning of a growth 
above into the body and branches of another tree. In 
this way a large number of new trees seems to be 
formed, so that in a sense this tree is not one, but many 
trees, though starting from one original stem, and all 
these side branches retaining their connection with the 
main body. I started from the main stem and paced 
one way of the extended branches, finding it to be one 
hundred and forty feet, and by another direction one 
hundred and sixty-five feet. Then pacing around the 



260 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

outer branch tips, I found it to be actually eight hun- 
dred and tifty feet, as the descriptive placard said, con- 
siderably over one sixth of a mile. It is estimated that 
ten thousand men could stand in the shade of this 
monster tree. 

The branches ran out at no great elevation and in a 
line nearly parallel with the ground, so that one walks 
under a continuous canopy of limbs, leaves, and para- 
sites only a dozen feet or so above him. Some of the 
aerial roots have become of great size, forming the body 
below of the tree-growth above them; others are small 
and of recent beginning. One not thicker than my 
finger had apparently been rooted only a few years, but 
was straight and taut as a fiddle-string. It is a botanical 
peculiarity of such roots, as it is of tendrils, to shorten 
when firmly attached. Near the main body was one as 
thick as a man's coat-sleeve, dropped, straight as a line, 
from fifty feet above. Under one great branch, Avhere 
the aerial roots had perished, two thick buttresses of 
brick had been built to support it. 

On many branches and stems was a luxuriant growth 
of parasites. This one tree, at least, seemed capable of 
the most vigorous growth, and at the same time of sup- 
porting a heavy load of parasites. Orchids were stick- 
ing to the branched stem, slender vines hung in festoons 
from the limbs, large epiphytes swung gracefully from 
the thick arching sections. On one side was a growth 
I had never seen parasitic till in India, a cactus extend- 
ing along the branches forty or sixty feet, and dropping 
down from its elevated perch in long loops far toward 
the ground. 

The old growth of leaves from the banyan was fall- 
ing, and the natives were sweeping them into great 
piles to carry away. Like the pine-leaves in New 



AT CALCUTTA. 261 

Hampshire, these do not fall till a year old, so the tree is 
evergreen. The vast crown, heavily loaded with the 
large, oval, thick leaves, smooth and entire, made a 
sight as the tree stood alone never to be forgotten. A 
small fruit, at this time, in January, the size of large 
bullets, grew on short stems out of the branches direct, 
in the usual way of the fig. This tree is the Indian hg 
—fictis Bengalensls — brother to the sacred peepul- 
tree, the JiciLS religiosa. Both are wonderful trees; 
the latter, when it can find another tree for clinging, 
will act as a vine and inclose it in a lattice-work clasp 
all around the body, and in time kill it. The fruit of 
neither is worth much for eating. Seeing the great 
banyan of Calcutta v/as more instructive than a lecture 
on botany. 



262 A WINTER JN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 



LETTER XXXIII. 

METHODISM IN RANGOON, BURMA. 

Among the places where mission work has been suc- 
cessfully set in motion through English-speaking begin- 
nings and the self-supporting plan that at Rangoon 
takes a prominent and hopeful position. This city is 
the commercial and political capital of British Burma, a 
fine sea-port on the Irrawaddy River, about thirty miles 
from the coast, where the largest ships can run to 
superb docks or find safe anchorage in the wide stream 
at all conditions of tide and weather. It is already a 
city of a hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, rapidly 
growing, and destined, owing to the overthrow of King 
Theebaw and the opening of all upper Burma to Euro- 
pean trade and enterprise, to become much more impor- 
tant in the near future. A railway now runs from 
Rangoon to Mandalay, two or three hundred miles, and 
is to be pushed much beyond this to tap the large 
Chinese trade of rich stuffs from the great inland city 
of Yun-Nan and the country about it. Burma itself is rich 
in tropical products, the valuable teak-wood, the most 
remunerative ruby mines in the world, petroleum wells 
that are already productive, rice-fields that are ever 
widening, pine-apples growing as wild as rasj)berries in 
America being a few of the prominent yields of this 
prolific country. As a strategic point in this vast 
country where British rule and industry are swiftly 
developing a vast future, Rangoon is an important point 



METHODISM IN RANGOON, BURMA. 263 

at wliicli to plant the beginnings of a glorious work for 
Christianity. It has in the G-reat Pagoda, the largest 
Buddhist temple in the world, a marvelously great and 
rich foundation. The Baptists here have had abundant 
success with an aboriginal tribe, the Karens, and also 
some advance among the Buddhist Burmese themselves. 

Eleven years ago Bishop Thoburn, with Rev. R. Car- 
ter, began a work among the English-speaking people 
here, and out of that beginning has grown already a 
mission with several departments and much pronnse. 
A church building paid for, capable of holding three 
hundred and fifty people, and a devoted membership of 
one hundred and thirty form the center of the activi- 
ties. They have a good parsonage also, the church 
property being near the center of the city. These 
English-speaking people all over this East country have 
a way of giving money to support church work that 
astounds a Yankee. One on a salary will sometimes 
give half his yearly income, and Bishop Thoburn, ac- 
quainted with both peoples, declares that in India they 
beat America by far in giving. The regular services 
of a Methodist church are carried on in a Rangoon 
congregation, including old-fashioned altar services, at 
one of which, improvised when I was there, two soldiers 
and four leading people of Mr. Long's parishioners 
came forward for prayers, making the heart of the pas- 
tor jubilant. 

Under direction of Rev. S. P. Long, the pastor of this 
English-speaking church, quite a group of other mis- 
sion activities are set in motion. A Seaman's Rest, 
occupying two leased buildings, one for refreshments, 
reading-room, chapel, and the like, the other for lodg- 
ing, is a full course of benefit to this class of people in 
this large port. It is time Ave had one, for another 



264 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

Church, sustaining one there, has opened sales-rooms for 
liquors ! The city government pays ninety rupees a 
month toward the expenses of our Rest, the remainder 
of the expenses being met by subscriptions among those 
interested. Evangehstic work, in cliarge of the super- 
intendent, Mr. Hailstone, is carried on every night in 
the chapel, save Thursday, when services are at 
the church. Many sailors are converted, the weak are 
strengthened, and backsliders are reclaimed. They 
find that during the past year between fifty and seventy- 
five have been led to a Christian life, while nearly four 
hundred have signed the pledge. The design is being 
reached to make this institution self-supporting, and 
also to use it as a base for other mission work. Mr. 
Hailstone now has charge of a large Sunday-school class 
among the soldiers in Rangoon, evangelistic work in 
two hospitals, and in other fields. 

Another thing under the wing of this strong Church 
is the girls' school, one of those grandly successful un- 
dertakings in this line that are placing our Church in 
the front rank in the East and yielding assurance to all 
interested in the Master's cause. It was organized 
seven years ago by Miss Warner, and is now under the 
efticient management of Miss Julia E. Wisner, Ph.B., 
who three years ago entered on her duties under ap- 
pointment by the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. 
She has as her first assistant Miss Files, also a Woman's 
Foreign Missionary Society appointment from America. 
They and their seven helpers in the corps of teachers 
are making the success of the founders enlarged and 
assured. A good building, paid for, accommodates the 
one hundred and fifty pupils, half of whom are orphans, 
or at least utterly homeless, the other half, including 
thirty boarders, paying their way. Misses Wisner and 



METHODISM IN RANGO ON, B UHMA. 265 

Files, while sent out by the Woman's Foreign Mission- 
ary Society, have their salaries paid out of the income 
of the school; so that, save a grant of two hundred dol- 
lars a year toward the support of the orphans, that 
Society has no money in the school. In it are taught 
English, Latin, French, and Burmese. On the grounds 
owned by the school Mr. Long has finished build- 
ing an orphanage, ample sized, two stories, of the 
beautiful teak- wood, the upper part to be used for 
teachers' and children's dormitories, the lower part for 
dining and recitation rooms. It will accommodate sev- 
enty children, and they already begin to plan for more 
than the two buildings can accommodate, so rapid is the 
growth of the school. Pupils range from kindergarten 
age to those prepared to enter the Calcutta Govern- 
ment University. Several of the older girls speak Bur- 
mese as their vernacular, so that a good chance is pre- 
sented for workers to open a mission among that race. 
The orphanage is costing ten thousand rupees, and 
plans are perfected at Rangoon to pay it. 

The inhabitants of Burma include, besides the native 
Burmese of Mongolian origin, many Tamils and 
Telugus from the region of Madras, who are at work 
in many ways about Rangoon and elsewhere. Under 
direction of Rev. Mr. Long's church a promising work is 
begun among the two latter peoples. Mr. Colly, an 
Anglo-Indian, holding a good government ])lace, de- 
votes the hours before office-time and after that to 
guiding a school among the Telugus now having sixty 
scholars ; on Sunday he preaches to them in the ver- 
nacular, and on Wednesday evening he has a class- 
meeting. There is a membership of over twenty. Mr. 
E. Peters, also in government employ, has a work 
among the Tamils, having a membership of over fifty, 



266 A WINTER IN. INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

a good school, Sunday-schools, two points of work be- 
sides the city, one at Toungloo, a hundred and twenty 
miles up country, where there is also a small English 
congregation. Both these men preach in the open air 
to such as gather to hear street-preaching, and often 
good results are seen. The Tamils are very apt to 
stick when converted, and, being less migratory than 
the Telugus, the work is full of promise. Native cat- 
echists and teachers aid them. It is no infrequent 
thing for the native Tamil people to bring one of their 
fellow-countrymen to Mr. Long for baptism, so ear- 
nestly are they succeeding in leading others to the truth. 
Not the least among the plans carried on in this new 
station for doing good is the woman's workshop. An 
elect lady of the Anglican Church, Mrs. Hodson, hav- 
ing opened a place where native women without means 
of earning any thing could do sewing to help support 
themselves and families, prepared to leave Rangoon a 
few months ago, and offered to turn over the institution 
to our Church. Mrs. Long, assisted by Mrs. Nesbitt, 
has entered on the work, so that now forty women get 
employment in it. The building is leased, the furnish- 
ings belong to the ladies, the expenses are provided for 
by reliable subscriptions, and evangelistic work is carried 
on in connection with the other duties, so that mucb 
good is done. Besides these things several other points 
are occupied and others opening temptinglj^ Ran- 
goon is made a district of the Bengal Conference, and 
Mr. Long, in charge, needs men and money to enter 
these openings. At a village nine miles out of Ran- 
goon, which is fast becoming a place of country resi- 
dences, two or three Methodist families reside, a Sun- 
day-school of a dozen scholars is opened, and Mr. Long 
preaches there twice a month. At Toungloo the outlook 



METHODISM IN RANGOON, BURMA. 267 

is promising boUi for Tamil and English work. A 
promising chance presents itself by an incipient flame 
among the ten thousand Chinese in Rangoon, but it 
cannot now be followed up. The girls in the school 
spe;iking Burmese could wisely be utilized to start a 
mission among that race, of whom not one is a member 
of the Methodist Church. Possibly a deaconess home 
will soon be set up hi Rangoon for this special purpose. 
It makes the heart of the missionary sick to stand face 
to face with so many rare openings that seem the beck- 
onings of Providence and for lack of workers and 
money not enter them. The heathen world is ripe for 
Christ, but the Church cannot occupy. O, for a bap- 
tism of the missionary spirit to furnish money and men! 



268 A WINTER JN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 



LETTER XXXIV. 

THE GBEAT BUDDHIST PAGODA AT RANGOON. 

TiiEY said in Calcutta that I must see the Great Pa- 
goda, and I did. Its golden dome could be distin- 
guished several miles down the river long before any- 
other object of the city was in sight, rising in glisten- 
ing brightness above the green trees that shut in all 
other views of Rangoon. We went to see it early the 
second morning after our arrival, driving to it a mile 
or more from the heart of the city, to find that a contin- 
uous stream of worshipers was already coming and go- 
ing along the main avenue of approach. The extended 
precincts of this great temple were made into a fortifi- 
cation before the advent of the British, and at this 
place it is said the natives vainl}^ made their final and 
most determined stand against the invaders. A deep 
moat crossed by a draw-bridge is first passed, then strong 
brick walls in two lines pierced with musketry loop- 
holes run completely around the conical hill half a mile 
wide on which the pagoda stands. At the entrance 
across the moat stand huge griffins on either side, be- 
tween which one must pass, big enough, open-mouthed, 
and so fierce-looking that they might be supposed to 
strike terror into the hearts of passers. They sit reclin- 
ing on their haunches, being in this posture full forty 
feet high, twenty-five feet long, and fifteen wide. They 
are evidently built of brick, coated over with plaster 
or stucco, and seem to be conventional figures set as a 



THE B UDDHIST PA G ODA AT RAN GO ON. 269 

guard to the entrance of most of similar pagodas in 
Burma. 

Passing these, one comes into a long, narrow-roofed 
passage-way with steps, such as are necessary to ascend 
the slope, the roof being supported by columns on each 
side, and along these colonnades huddle beggars, lepers, 
deformed people, and also hucksters selling candles, 
flowers, fruits, sweets, and the like, for offerings, and other 
small truck not so designed. The physical and moral 
lepers alike sought the sacred precincts. Doubtless the 
latter were as hopelessly incurable in that place as the 
former. A book-stall yielded me a Buddhist catechism, 
translated into the Burmese from the English, in which 
it was first written, both texts being in this novel tract. 
This covered passage must be at least a hundred yards 
long, finally landing one, after having passed many 
small shrine-pagodas, a hundred feet higher than the 
street, on the broad level platform from whose surface 
rises the Great Pagoda. If one was surprised at the out- 
look before, of colonnades, beggars, shrines, painted and 
gold-covered columns, he is now struck with amaze- 
ment at the wonderful sight that bursts on his view. 
Before his eyes is the gold-covered j^ile rising in easy 
gradations for the first hundred feet or more, then 
growing rapidly smaller, forming a graceful, strong 
spire, or tower, at least two hundred feet higher yet, 
till the entire altitude is greater than St. Paul's, Lon- 
don. There is no interior, this vast structure being 
solid, it is supposed, though rumor says it is built abov,e 
a sacred tank. On every side of this huge pile cover- 
ing the seventy-five acres or more of the hill-platform 
are smaller pagodas, shrines, summer-houses, and other 
buildings, of every shape and size, probably private dona- 
tions to the strange collection. There are four entrances 



270 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

to these grounds, only one being much used, the western 
one toward the city; and at the base of the Great Pagoda, 
facing each entrance, is a smaller shrine-pagoda, in 
which the principal part of the w^orship was going on. 
Huge images of Buddha, six or ten times as large as 
life, are sitting with the peculiar calm face of all the 
Buddhist images. These are covered with gilt, while 
one or two of them are of brass or bronze, with the 
face freshly brightened, presenting a curious appear- 
ance. Before these images were placed multitudes of 
little candles lighted, whose glitter in the dark inner 
court of the temple served to give light. The worship- 
ers were satisfied in most instances only to present tlieir 
offering of fruit or flowers, but some prostrated them- 
selves on the pavement and muttered prayers. One old 
man thus praying had beside him a little boy who re- 
peated the words of the old man after him. 

Every Burmese boy at about the age of eight must 
spend several months in a novitiate attending on some 
Buddhist priest, repeating prayers like this boy or beat- 
ing the peculiar bronze gong they use to call for alms, 
as we saw another boy doing, or at some other service 
for the priest. Thus early in this way the young Bur- 
mese boy is preempted for their own religion. Mis- 
sionary success among them is slight, but they are a 
race to make good Christians — docile, truthful, and 
smart. The pi-iests and worshi23ers before these images 
did not object to sight-seers wandering among them as 
they were busy here and there, appearing pleased rather 
at seeing Western travelers. There were Chinese, Bur- 
mese, and a few without the Mongolian cast of features, 
though representatives of that race were by far the 
most numerous. 

The columns supporting the small pagodas are like 



THE B UDDHIST PA G ODA A T RA NG DON. 271 

those by which we had ))assed in coming, covered with 
gold-leaf. In some of the poorer work the size of the 
square pieces could be distinguished as it was laid on 
the side of the columns. On each side of the entrance 
to the small pagoda were kept burning, by attendant 
priests, roaring fires of prayer-paper, and further 
around, in another shrine, I found one lonely old devo- 
tee using only an iron kettle in which to burn his mes- 
sages to the gods. I begged one of these sacred scraps 
as a memento. Lights were kept going also in porce- 
lain or cut-glass lamps hung from the ceiling of this 
first shrine. One altar was very rich in inlaid work of 
choice cut stones. The smoke of the candles, of the in- 
cense, burning paper, the queer genuflexions, the mut- 
tered prayers, the pictures and things, the devout faces 
of the worshipers, made in the busy movement and 
change a most interesting picture. Here paganism was 
active, a living force, to which men were devotedly at- 
tached. I had seen only two or three such aggressive 
sights before, one at Benares along the bathing ghat, 
another at the Kali ghat in Calcutta. Christianity is 
in contact with living forces of opposition in this east 
country. Here were multitudes of w^orshipers with the 
accumulated force of a cult unquestioned by these peo- 
ple and their descendants for fifty generations, their 
images, temples, rich altars, shrines, all showing the hold 
of their faith on them. 

After watching these things for a while we wandered 
about the court to see other sights. Beggar-priests 
could be found here and there beating a small crescent- 
shaped gong, asking for alms. The gong was suspended 
by a cord that twisted and untwiste<l as the gong was 
struck, adding a wavy cadence to the tones as it swung 
thus loosely in the air. We approached one of these 



272 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA 7SIA. 

mendicants with some rupees in our hands, telling him 
by signs we wanted to buy the gong. He would sell it 
for four rupees, and we knew we could buy a new one 
at the bazar for two; but wanting this one, worn by long 
use, we finally struck a bargain at three rupees, and went 
off happy with our purchase, as he no doubt was also at 
getting a clear rupee out of the trade. 

The court is paved with square, finely made bricks, 
having trees and palms growing here and there in its 
area. A space is kept open about the base of the Great 
Pagoda, while the outer limits of the platform, next a 
wall, are covered by a vast number of shrine-pagodas, 
the idea being not unlike that of chapels added to a 
European cathedral. Most of these side pagodas were 
unused, falling into decay, or at least neglect, while 
others were elaborately bedizened with gold-leaf, white 
paint, or very fine white plastering. In all of them 
were images or statues of Buddha in many different 
postures, the favorite position being a sitting one. In 
one small pagoda a reclining figure of Buddha w^as full 
thirty feet long, the half-closed eyes, placid face, and 
position on the side, with the head raised, all suggesting 
the meditation for which that saint was renowned. In 
the same pagoda were a couple of large figures in a sit- 
ting posture, made of beautiful white alabaster, and 
most exquisitely polished. The mouth, eyes, eyebrows, 
and hair were painted on the images. About many of 
these figures in most of the pagodas and on the columns 
were bits of mirrors, usually of glass, put in by the 
hundred at all angles, trying, it would seem, to suggest 
omniscience. The effect of these numberless little look- 
ing-glasses was very striking. In some of the shrine- 
pagodas the images were of brass or bronze, like those 
in the first place of worship, the faces also brightly pol- 



THE BUDDHIST PA G ODA A T RANG OK 273 

ished, as in tliat case, suggesting the faces of the Bible 
saints that shone with the glory of God. 

Another attractive feature of some of the small pago- 
das was large masses of most exquisite wood-carving. 
The strong mahogany-colored teak, which abounds in 
Burman forests, is the wood used for this, its tirm fiber 
being as good or better for it than the oak of England. 
The whole front of some small pagodas would have a 
lot of this carving, representing flowers, fruits, animals, 
leaves, birds, and the like, in fine taste, or in fantastic fig- 
ures and grouping. In some instances a single piece 
would cover a front of twenty-five or forty feet. Some 
of it was lately cut, showing the recent color of the tim- 
ber, other was old enough to have imparted to it that 
nearly black coloring so much prized by connoisseurs 
and skilled purchasers of old carving. Doubtless some 
of those pieces would have brought a fabulous price in 
London or Kew York. 

Bells of heavy pattern and rich tones hung here and 
there in front of the shrines, for any one to strike who 
would in order to call the attention of the Buddha god 
to the act of worship about to be performed. Beside 
each of these would lie some heavy sections of deer- 
horns for the purpose of striking the bells, which, of 
course, all our party did, if not to call the god's atten- 
tion, to test the tone of the bell, and to do any permit- 
ted thing in a strange situation and place. We came 
in our wanderings to one bell that is a marvel. It is at 
least twelve feet high by eight across the lower side, 
and the lip is more than a foot thick. It is hung by a 
massive attachment taller than itself to a thick beam 
resting on the top of two stout columns. The w^hole 
appearance is that of gigantic weight and immense 
stability of frame- work for supporting it. Like the 
18 



274 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

smaller ones, it is struck only from the outside by tlie 
conventional stag-horn. It is engraved in native char- 
acters, probably with the sayings of the saint, and is 
said to have been cast out of the free-will offerings of 
the devout, who gave their gold and silver ornaments, 
rings, ear-rings, and bracelets, and these can be detected 
in their only partially molten condition in the body of 
the bell. It is said that the British in capturing Ran- 
goon deemed the wonderful bell a tit trophy to ship to 
England, and, having conveyed it to the river for em- 
barkation, on attempting to raise it to the ship's deck 
the means proved inadequate, so that the mighty bell 
dropped into the river and sank to the bottom. All 
their efforts to raise it proved futile, and the precious 
relic was left to its watery burial. After some years 
the Burmese sought and obtained permission to raise it, 
if they could, and restore it to its place, which they 
succeeded in doing. Great flakes are broken from the 
edges of the bell, showing rough usage sometime. It 
was a masterful instance of a people doing for devotion 
what another could not do for thieving. In another 
part of the court was also a bell of similar size and 
mounting, but lacking the interesting history of the 
former one. Tall poles stood here and there, on which 
was hung a curious devotetnent, a hollow net-like thing 
made of party-colored tassels, thirty or fifty feet long 
and a foot in diameter, kept stretched with small hoops. 
These, slowly swaying in the breeze, with their many 
bright colors, were attractive and odd indeed. Pen- 
nants and other fixtures were also sometimes flaunting 
from the top of these poles. One thing surprised us, 
that among the lesser shrines stood a number of 
small crosses, perfect, and having a rude crown set on 
the top. How these came here and how set up we 



THE B UDDIllST PA G ODA AT RAN GO ON. 275 

could only guess, but there they were, possibly owing 
to the influence or acts of Catholic priests. It is said 
that the Buddhist worship has been influenced by its 
contact with Catholicism. 

In front of one pretty, adorned shrine two women 
were kneeling, who would each lift up the figure of a 
turtle cut in stone, the wooden box on wliich these lay 
showing much wear where the attrition of raising and 
putting down the stone had been going on doubtless for 
years. Probably some legend connected with Buddha 
would explain this odd worship. They seemed pleased 
that we were interested and wanted to raise the same 
stone figures. We could not mutter the prayers they 
had been using, so there was probably no eflficacy in the 
act, as there must have been in theirs. At the base of 
one great peepul-tree a platform was raised, such as the 
Hindus frequently have for worship at the base of that 
tree, and in this one were recesses in which sat statues 
of Buddha. The lively roots of this wonderful tree had 
broken the platform as well as some of the images in 
pieces, one of the latter having its head knocked ofl" by 
a huge root, and about the head and neck of a second 
image some small roots were coiling and twisting like 
vindictive serpents. One of the pagodas seemed to be 
a kind of storehouse of images, for it was dark, dirty, 
deserted, but packed so full of its peculiar treasures 
that there was not standing-room left either for man 
or another image of the great teacher. I wondered if 
they were kept there for use on state occasions; or were 
they obsolete and going to decay, like the system they 
represent ? Among the thicker trees and palms of the 
rear part of the great area the cawing crows and 
screaming scavenger kites made the court hideous with 
their cries, seeming sadly out of place in that spot 



276 A WINTER m INDIA AND MALA YSIA, 

devoted to the calm meditation of the contemplative 
Buddha. 

There seemed to be a few favorite haunts of beggars 
beside the covered colonnades of approach. One of 
these was a raised platform, where, under cover, hung 
the second great bell. A poor blind fellow with his 
wife and child sat on the plaster pavement, he playing 
three kinds of instruments at one time, while she sang 
a not unmusical song. It was different from the India 
bhajans, less monotone and more melodious. The 
entirely naked baby was cunning and pretty as it 
nestled in its mother's arms, and when she was asked 
by the woman of our party if she would give her the 
child she slowly answered, " No." The blind man played 
a rude violin with his hands, out of which he drew 
many sweet tones; then, moved by the toes of one foot, 
was a pair of jangling cymbals, and by the toes of the 
other foot a pair of bamboo clappers, making a noise 
not unlike the bones used by negro minstrels in Amer- 
ica. It was a unique concert, and of course drew some 
pice from our party. On another part of the same 
platform sat two men, one playing a triple set of in- 
struments, like the blind man, while the other kept 
time with him on a set of sounding bamboo slats 
struck with small wooden hammers held in each hand, 
the slats hanging loosely above a covered wooden box, 
shaped not unlike a narrow baby cradle. It was rude, 
barbarous music, indeed. In another small pagoda a 
huckster awaited buyers of fantastic bamboo and 
palm-leaf umbrellas, several of which we had seen over 
the images of the saint in different parts of the grounds. 
He is supposed to need these in his spiritual peregrina- 
tions. Paper flowers and elaborate peacock fans were 
also on sale at the same stall. In front of the entrance- 



THE B UD DEIST PA G OJDA A T BANG ON. 277 

shrine we found a group of Chinese, many of them be- 
ing about the pagodas, since it was their New Year 
festival time. These were clad for the nonce in robes 
kept there to hire out, of the richest brocades and 
most fantastic patterns. Each of these dozen celestials 
had the most extensive beards and mus^taches hung on 
his face by wires and other attachments, just for that 
occasion, like the robes. They would change the beards 
to masks, while some discordant horns and other in- 
struments were giving forth unearthly noises, the men 
thus robed going through motions as fantastic as their 
dress, the last position apparently being to cast them- 
selves on the pavement and touch it with their fore- 
heads. One of them kept grinning through it all be- 
cause we and quite a crowd of other people were 
standing by to watch the curious dress and antics. 
Another took a small brilliantly clothed doll in his 
hands, and, having laughingly held it out toward Bud- 
dha's image, prayed, and then laid the precious thing 
down on the pavement as he prostrated himself there 
also. 

Entirely around the immediate base of the great 
pagoda were two rows of adornments. These were 
composed of miniature pagoda-shrines, of griffins simi- 
lar to those at the moat entrance, only smaller, and 
stone elephants of one third size, kneeling with their 
heads toward the pagoda. So great is the extent of 
this base that there was a vast number of these adorn- 
ments. Interspersed with such conventional things were 
a few lamps, crosses, and other things, but they were 
mostly of those named. Only by going entirely around 
this immense pile could we form any notion of its vast- 
ness. Where the real base begins inside the double row 
of elephants and griffins it must be about four hundred 



278 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

fe.et each way on the ground. Its ground-plan is 
square, each of the corners being cut off, making the 
whole outline rather octagonal. From this ground- 
plan it recedes as it rises, by gradual steps and pyra- 
mid-like recessions, growing smaller and smaller. On 
one of the platforms thus made, a hundred feet higher 
than we stood, some monks were repairing the gold 
covering, and to shield them from the awful glare of 
such exposure and such a light they had mats resting 
on a rude frame just above them. To these places 
they had ascended by bamboo ladders that hung from 
their lofty perches back to the base over the polished 
surface of the pagoda walls. Above this the structure 
grew rapidly less to a slender column, and was en- 
tirely surrounded by an elaborate bamboo scaffolding, 
reaching to the top of the spire. The crown of the 
whole structure was shaken off not many years ago by 
an earthquake, and at much cost and labor the fine 
piece of workmanship, enriched by choice stones and 
gems, was remade below and raised to its place again 
by means of immense hawsers, some of which, at the 
backside, yet remained. The scaffolding remains, also, 
as some work is yet to be done along the spire. All 
of it, from the broad base to the pointed top, is plated 
with gold. How much is used to cover its acres of 
surface ? — tons ? I should not wonder. It is vastly rich. 
The whole effect of this huge structure is almost as 
overwhelming as that of St, Peter's or the Coliseum. 
Standing on a trap-rock hill, that rises a hundred feet 
or more above the surrounding level country, it is an 
object of attraction whichever way one is from Ran- 
goon. It is seen above the trees and buildings from 
any part of the city. From the river far below and 
above the city its golden spire can be caught gleam- 



THE B UD DEIST PA G ODA A T RANG OON. 279 

ing in tlie tropical sunlight. It stands thus as a nat- 
ural landmark, but also as a monument of that belief 
which, next to Christianity, has the most of humanity 
under its control. The people who worship here are 
not barbarians, but a people with a civilization old 
when our Anglo-Saxon civilization was crude and 
heathenish. What will be the future of the temple 
and the cult it represents ? Who can tell ? Christian- 
ity is mighty, but it wins few converts from the Bud- 
dhists. The}^ try to match, the noblest teachings of 
Christ with those of the pious Buddha. Their faith 
makes them better people in many ways than the Brah- 
man faith that in India it vainly sought to supersede. 
One can depend on the word and character of the Bud- 
dhist Burmese more than on those of a Brahman In- 
dian. The Baptists, who have had a mission long years 
among the Burmese, iind it hard to change them, under 
the shadow of this pagoda, to a belief in Christ. Our 
own Church in Rangoon is preparing to enter the lists, 
and let us hope that Pagoda Court may yet yield a 
place for the erection of a Methodist church. 



280 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 



LETTER XXXY. 

AT PENANG. 

Do you ask where Penang is? I should have had to 
do so before visitmg it. Look for it three fourths down 
the Malaysia Peninsula, on the south side. It is situated 
on the north side of an island two miles from the main- 
land, the channel between the island and peninsula 
forming the harbor. The city lies on a low tongue of 
land with high hills back west of it, and contains about 
eighty thousand people, mostly Chinese, Indians, and 
Malays, but having enough British to control the other 
thousands. Our ship from Rangoon to Singapore has 
stopped a day to change freight and passengers, so in 
company with Rev. Mr. and Mi's. Oldham I have been 
ashore to call on Mr. J. R. Macfarlane, of the Chinese 
Protectorate, and see the city. It is midwinter, the first 
days of February, when the deepest snows and drifts 
are likely to prevail in New England; but here we have 
to carry an umbrella, besides wearing protected hats to 
keep off the terrible heat and power of the sun. 

As we came ashore we found the birds and trees were 
tropical as well as the scalding heat. While waiting 
for breakfast, that came at ten o'clock, after an early 
cup of tea on the ship, I wandered out along the curious 
streets as the others lounged and talked in the house. 
Here were the almond-eyed Chinamen, poor and rich; 
the dark Tamil from South India, doing much of the 
menial work; the Malay, as dark as the Tamil, but a 



AT PENAN G. 281 

'stronger, more self-reliant race; then a few of the dom- 
inant British in their white cotton suits and pith hats. 
As varied and strange as the people were the trees and 
flowers. All are tropical. There were the palms, co- 
coa-nut, areca or betel nut, travelers', and others; the 
tamarind, tamarisk, mango, and bread-fruit trees, some 
of them, as well as the brilliant poinsettas and bour- 
gainvillias, being covered with flowers ; gardens of 
fresh cucumbers, radishes, turnips, and lettuce — every 
thing, in short, that a tropical country could produce 
in midwinter. Bananas, pine-apples, and otlier fruits 
were fresh for the table. The " jack -fruit," growing 
on a coarse, thick tree, attains a weight of thirty or 
forty pounds. 

Captain Macfarlane took us in his carriage to one of 
the attractions of the city, a fine waterfall, four miles 
back of the town, where the hills rise abruptly from the 
plain. For two or three miles we rode through almost 
continuous plantations of cocoa-nut palms. They are 
not as graceful as the date or areca palm, but are very 
valuable, being rated at five dollars each. They are set 
out about twent}^ feet apart, so that on an acre or two a 
man can have the worth of a small fortune. All the 
feasible sections of the island away from the city, and 
the main-land opposite, are covered with this highly 
remunerative palm. On each tree twenty or fifty huge 
nuts in their light green husks cluster among the wide, 
coarse leaves that crown the columnar trunk. Like a 
few other tropical fruits, they are continuously produc- 
tive. The fruit of the areca palm, a small nut, is used 
by the Indian people, together with the betel-leaf that 
grows on a vine like a bean, to chew as some Americans 
chew tobacco. A bit of slacked quicklime is used with 
these things to aid in some chemical changes. What 



282 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

Strange stuff degraded man will eat and drink ! The* 
areca palm is most graceful, a trunk eighty feet high 
being not more than six inches thick at the base, with 
a smooth tapering growth. As we came nearer the foot 
of the hills the palms ceased and mango orchards took 
their place. Quarries of a coarse light granite were be- 
ing worked, the chips from them being laid into the 
roa.ds. Along the foot of these hills beautiful gardens 
had been laid out by the city authorities, in which 
shrubs, trees, flowers, and fruits from all parts of the 
tropics were being reared. Growing in a small pond 
was a single root of that gigantic water-lily, the Vic- 
toria regia, the round leaves four feet across, the blos- 
som but half open to-day, yet full seven inches wide. 
In the same pond was a real lotus, of the genus Nelum- 
bimn, the flat leaves lying on the water, but the pink 
blossom five or six inches across, raised on a stem about 
sixteen inches above it. Some of the peculiar seed-pods, 
shaped like a pepper-box, were just ready to shed the 
nutlets for a new growth. Another lily was very like 
our white lily. 

In a fernery, a slight shade being made by a roof of 
palm-leaves, were many native and imported ferns. 
The famous maidenhair fern, the Adiantum, that I 
have found in all the countries visited thus far, was here 
in great abundance, both in the fernery and in the 
jungle. In this fernery were eight or ten species of it, 
some small, others large. Other species that were 
strange to me exceeded in size and beauty the ostrich 
fern and osmunda of north United States. An orchid- 
house had those beautiful parasites by the score. Some 
were hung up with their roots attached to old pieces of 
wood, a few were growing in pots filled with broken 
charcoal and pebbles, while others flourished in coarse, 



AT PENANG. 283 

dry soil. Their strange forms, with leaves wide or nar- 
row, spiked or lily-like, their odd way of parasitic 
clinging to almost any thing, the exquisite perfume of 
their fantastic flowers, and the exceedingly varied col- 
oration, cannot fail to attract and fascinate those who 
cultivate them. Begonias of many kinds, and other 
plants, such as temperate countries can keep only in 
hot-houses, were produced here in great profusion. 

Having left our carriage, we climbed up a zigzag path 
through the jungle to the falls. It was a real tropical 
jungle. Here and there huge trees, looking like the 
hickory, grew to the height of a hundred feet or more, 
while shorter than those was a dense growth some sixty 
feet high composed of broad-leaved trees, with palms, 
creepers, and vines ; and then for a few feet above the 
ground the third growth made such a mat of bushes and 
small prickly vines that a man could force his way through 
it only by cutting a path. We picked some lycopodiums 
of a finer growth than I have ever seen in America. 
The superintendent of this garden and park is classify- 
ing the flora of the island of Penang, and sending pressed 
specimens to the National Museum at Kew, England. 
For penetrating these pnckly jungles he is compelled, 
they said, to be leather-clad from head to foot. Very 
few blossoms were found to-day among those wild 
tangles, whether out of season or a tropical lack I do 
not know. Monkeys were said to abound about the falls, 
but we did not see any. The gardeners, early in the 
morning, killed a wild boar that had been making havoc 
among their tender plants. Neither tigers nor leopards 
are supposed to be on the island, but both abound on 
the main-land opposite. The cobras, dormant in India 
at this season, are not so here, and I greatly desired to 
see one in its native state, but was denied the privilege. 



284 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA TSIA. 

At one shot, not long ago, Captain Macfarlane killed 
two. There is no known antidote for their bite. 

We found the falls in the deep recess of the hill-side, 
and thick jungle on every side, to be quite a beautiful 
thing. The water, a large brook, tumbles in white 
noisy cascades for three hundred feet over the trap- 
rock. It forms a delightful place of attraction to lovers 
of nature and those from the city wishing to find a quiet 
hour. Beside the foot of the falls is a bit of a Brah- 
man temple, ten feet square, devoted to one of Vishnu's 
incarnations, where a priest in attendance presented us 
each a glass of the clear, cool brook-water on a tray 
covered with flowers. As we returned by another path 
down the hill-side the delightful odors distilled from the 
jungle by the sun's heat partly atoned for the way that 
burning orb beat upon our heads. More blossoms ap- 
peared on the slope toward the south than on the slope 
northward, where we went up to the falls. 

The Chinese at Penang seem settled for staying. 
They are in many kinds of business, and numbers of 
them are becoming rich. One of the most elegant houses 
in all the city is owned and occupied by a Chinaman. 
The red lanterns and paper pasted about the gate-way 
leading to his house showed the national taste. They 
thoroughly despise all but their own race. Captain Mac- 
farlane told us of amusing encounters with their im- 
pudence. Here I have seen my first jin-ric-sha. This 
novel carriage is two-wheeled, light, something like an 
American gig, but lower, covered with a real buggy 
top, and between the slender thills, almost as long as 
those for a horse, slowly trots a strong man, who is 
fully contented if he gets five cents for drawing you an 
hour. I shall try one at Singapore. Chinamen huck- 
sters carrying a large basket of garden products at each 



AT PENAN G. 285 

end of a pole over their shoulders; Indian coolies, with 
immense loads on their heads; hats as large as para- 
sols; men with only an apron about their loins and 
limbs; carriages double-roofed, to protect from the sun, 
the shutters of the sides all open, are some of the odd 
things to be seen on the streets of Penang. Above all 
was the hearty hospitality of the Macfarlanes, and the 
gift to me of a peculiar cane made from the young shoot 
of a palm, called a "Penang lawyer," and from its 
great weight and heavy knob most admirable for a 
knock-down argument, which I mean to bring home to 
show to my legal friends in New England. 



286 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 



LETTER XXXVI. 

ACROSS THE TRACK OF MRS. LEAVITT'S AATOMAN'S 
CHRISTIAIQ" TEMPERANCE UlJIOIsr ^WORK IN INDIA. 

Having known something of this lady's work abroad • 
before I left America, I was much interested in cross- 
ing her path in this country and observing the results 
of her labors. From Bombay to Singapore I found she 
had created a deep impression. In some instances 
good results and successes continued; in others, sus- 
pended action, but doubtless in no case an utter fail- 
ure; for if Woman's Christian Temperance Union local 
unions have not continued in all cases the valuable in- 
fluences of a course of lectures as able as those Mrs. 
Leavitt gave could not fail of leaving lasting results for 
the good cause. In numbers of instances the unions 
have been kej^t up, and in their particular fields are 
hard at work. Possibly enough remain to enable a per- 
manent growth yet to cover the whole of the land. 

Temperance agitation in India has to work under 
special difficulties, some of which are of a nature not 
known in America. There are great prejudices yet ex- 
isting among the English and Scotch 2:)eople against the 
women doing public work, like lecturing, and also many 
of those duties expected by the different departments 
of Woman's Christian Temperance Union ororaniza- 
tion. Nor do they believe at all in woman suffrage, 
and its advocacy is certain to bring down gentle male- 
dictions. These things in some instances may have 



MRS. LEAVITTS WORK IN INDIA. 287 

hindered Mrs. Leavitt's success, and it is certain that 
they have hindered many of the European women 
from becoming active members of the local unions. 
Then, too, the customs of the government officials and 
the army officers are generally opposed to teetotalism. 
No public or social dinner is considered a proper one 
by these men without wine or other liquors. It is said 
that a Presbyterian minister in one of the Indian cities 
who is an active temperance man invited a lot of En- 
glish officers to dinner, and of course he did not furnish 
any wine or strong drinks. A second time he had a din- 
ner, inviting the same men, and this time they brought 
to his table their own wine and butlers, who were i-equired 
by their masters to ]30ur out wine for them at the table 
of their host. This impudence, very properly, kej^t the 
minister from ever inviting those officials again. 

Then there are objections among the European 
women in the East against being associated in any such 
organization with either Eurasians or native women. 
They cannot understand the readiness of American 
women and missionaries to work with any body along 
such gospel lines. This has proved an obstacle in some 
l^laces that lias hindered an extension of the work, but 
possibly this and other obstacles will be surmounted in 
time, so that the hopeful, magnificent results reached in 
America by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union 
will be equaled in other lands. There is also need of work 
being done here to prove that all alcoholic drinks are 
physically injurious. Many of the people are either una- 
ware of the scientific developments of the matter in 
these times or will not give due weight to the scien- 
tific and medical testimony brought forward to prove 
it. They affect to pass by such medical authorities as 
Richardson, Carpenter, and others, and quote against 



288 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

these sentiments medical authorities opposed to teeto- 
talism. Doubtless a thorough discussion of the author- 
ities and proofs of the physical injuries produced would 
be a valuable one for them to listen to. 

To me it has been immeasurably sad to find that 
among the English clergy there are yet practices and 
principles opposed to total abstinence. Some of them 
urge that drunkenness is a weakness against which one 
should guard himself the same time that he drinks as 
much as he chooses. A clergyman called on one of our 
missionaries not long ago, and proved to be in so intox- 
icated a condition tbat the woman was about to send 
him away and scold her servant for permitting a 
drunken man to come into the house, when the husband 
came in, who knew tlie poor fool, and saved his wife 
from her mistake. I was introduced to a missionary to 
China from the Methodist New Connection just return- 
ing to the field with his new wife, and he had a cigar 
in his mouth, and at the table of the steamer took his 
wine regularly. Judgment must begin at the house of 
God. 

Oddly enough, a peculiar condition of tilings exists 
in most of these heathen communities. The Moham- 
medan is prohibited by his religion from drinking spir- 
ituous liquors, and this precept he observes as a rule, 
though he may be a bloody cut-throat, as the Bedouins. 
The hiffh caste Hindu considers it a ^\m\ of low caste if 
he sees one drunk, and the mark of a degraded charac- 
ter. The Burmese are opposed to drinking on religious 
grounds. The anomalous spectacle is presented of a 
Christian government encouraging and fostering the 
license and out-still systems for the purpose of revenue, 
by which drunkenness is increasing among temperance 
pagans at a fearfully cumulative rate. Mr. W. E. 



MBS. LEA VITTS WORK IN INDIA. 289 

Caine, M. P., has been in this country the present season 
lecturing on temperance and trying to organize parlia- 
mentarj'- opposition to this kind of thing, and, while 
attacked by the administration press as opposing the 
government, he is most cordially welcomed and recog- 
nized by the educated natives and by the American 
missionaries. The troubled waters are beating against 
the shores of Hindustan. Wherever Christianity is a 
power, there the cry for total abstinence arises in this 
age in which science, history, and medicine join hands 
with the Master's teachings. 

At Bombay the Woman's Christian Temperance 
Union is kept up, though languidly. Some unfortunate 
misunderstanding seemed to hinder a hearty co-opera- 
tion on the part of British missionaries, but the Ameri- 
can ones are doing what they can. Something was 
being done at Moradabad; at Agra a profound impres- 
sion was created, and many joined, but there was hardly 
found the self-sacriiice needed to continue. They were 
more successful in keeping on at Cawnpore, the meet- 
ings evidently doing good. At Naini Tal there was ex- 
emplified a misfortune attending much of the Woman's 
Christian Temperance Union interests, the migratory 
demands of English occupation. The ladies at a station 
or city are not at all certain of being at the same place 
the next year. While a large union was organized there, 
the season at the Sanitarium closing, the officers of it 
mostly had to go away. At Bareilly, in addition to 
lectures in the regular course, Mrs. Leavitt gave one 
to the soldiers and one in the city hall before a large 
gathering of educated natives, to whom her address 
was translated, who were greatly pleased and deeply 
impressed. So much temperance work had already 
been carried on there and at many other places, as the 
19 



290 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

Blue Ribbon movement, tlie Good Templars, gospel 
temperance meetings, and others, that it was not al- 
ways found possible to put in another organization, and 
this place was left to form a Woman's Christian Tem- 
perance Union organization later, if found best. At 
most of the smaller stations only a few European fami- 
lies live at all, and it frequently happens that as the 
American women have so much on hand already they 
cannot well assume any more duties. Then, too, every 
mission founded by Americans is a temperance organ- 
ization in itself, since all those belonging to the mission 
must pledge teetotal! sm. So, as it is almost impossible 
under the present conditions of India society to form 
unions containing natives and Europeans, the limits 
of the work must be mostly among the latter. Much 
temperance work is done by the press, missionaries, lect- 
urers, and by other means. 

I found the union at Lucknow active and busy; so, 
too, at Allahabad. At this place a local organization 
was transformed into a Woman's Christian Temper- 
ance Union, and to perpetuate and extend their influ- 
ence they have public meetings. I had a pleasant chance 
of meeting the union at Calcutta, finding it active, well 
organized, and hopeful. At Rangoon I found also an 
active Woman's Christian Temperance Union, mostly 
sustained by the American missionaries, with much 
general temperance sentiment being fostered by them. 
This station is fortunate in having recently received 
two or three active Woman's Christian Temperance 
Union women from America. Among the large num- 
bers of converts in this country gathered by the Bap- 
tist the work of temperance is urgently taught, and 
among the Karen women the names of twenty-two 
thousand petitioners were appended to the world peti- 



MRS. LEA VITTS WORK IN INDIA. 291 

tion. Wh;it a record for these twenty-two thousand 
Karen women! Among the Burmese there is very little 
drunkenness, as one of the five great rules in the Bud- 
dhist faith is not to drink. There are four unions in 
Burma, with a prospect of more, and an increase in the 
Bands of Hope is expected. As in many other parts, 
those who have a disposition to crowd temperance 
work have so many missionary duties already that they 
can devote but little time to this. I had the pleasure 
of addressing a large audience at Rangoon on temper- 
ance. 

At Singapore is a vigorous union, started when Mrs. 
Leavitt was present. They seek by social means, ad- 
dresses, public meetings, and the like, to extend their in- 
fluence. They have gone two by two on the streets and 
among the liquor-shops getting the soldiers and sailors 
to gospel temperance meetings held at the Sailors' Rest. 
Something has been done to arouse public sentiment; a 
Band of Hope has been organized, and progress is ob- 
servable. Here, too, the most of the pushing has to be 
done by the missionaries. Not far from Singapore is 
the native Malay-Mohammedan State of Jahore. Mrs. 
Leavitt visited the sultan, explaining to him the object 
and work of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. 
He was much interested and pleased, especially as he is 
greatly plagued with drunken Europeans coming into 
the precincts of his capital city. 



292 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 



LETTER XXXVII. 

A WEEK WITH OTJE MISSIONARIES AT SINGAPORE. 

At high noon, Thursday, February 1, we liad taken 
a pilot and were slowly steaming through the narrow 
western entrance between the islands into Singapore 
harbor. A battery of big guns frowned down upon us 
at the right, not more than three hundred yards from 
the channel, while the hills back of the city at our left 
also bristled with the grim dogs of war. To the south 
the harbor lies open and wide, much like that of Naples 
to the west, but lacking the high rocky capes in the 
offing. Scores of ships were lying here and there 
about the capacious anchorage, some tied to the docks, 
some close to the shore, others far out; many of them 
were native coasting-boats, in such marked contrast 
with the large steamers that now do most of the world's 
carrying. They told of two or three ships that were 
flying the Stars and Stripes; but I did not get time to 
visit them. I was in company with Rev. W. F. Old- 
ham and wife, superintendent of our newly organized 
Malaysia Mission, having come with them from the 
session of the Bengal Conference at Allahabad, and I 
found them the most agreeable of traveling compan- 
ions. From Calcutta to Rangoon two other mission- 
aries were along — Mr. Brewster, from Cincinnati, to the 
English-speaking church at Singapore, and Miss J. E. 
Wisner, for some years principal of our girls' school at 
Rangoon. 



A WEEK AT SINGAPORE. 293 

We were soon ashore, Mr. and Mrs. Oldham being 
lieartily welcomed by the rest of the missionaries and a 
group of his parishioners. We were driven to the com- 
modious head-quarters of the mission in the new house 
purchased since Mrs. Oldham's leaving six months be- 
fore, for a henlth-lift, so that she had the sensation of 
a new^ home. One half of this new property, costing 
twelve thousand Straits dollars, was paid for by the 
Chinese whose sons are in our school. It is one of the 
anomalous things of this mission that the Chinese con- 
tribute their thousands of dollars for the property of 
our school and church. They find that the Americans 
come seeking their good; they wisely believe in Mr. 
Oldham's right spirit and great ability as an educator; 
they are acute enough to see the difference between 
our work and that proposed by some other people; 
hence their good-will, their money, and their children 
in our schools. It is proposed by our mission authori- 
ties to make appeals along similar lines to the Chinese 
at other points in the boundaries of this mission. 

The region easily reached from Singapore as a stra- 
tegic center for planting missions is very extensive. 
The whole of the peninsula south of Rangoon is access- 
ible, also the great islands of Sumatra, Java, Borneo, 
Celebes, the Philippines, and groups of smaller ones 
scattered through these seas, including a million and a 
quarter square miles and thirty-five millions of people. 
Most of this vast country has inviting doors. Singa- 
pore, where we have a good start, is the commercial 
and geographical center of all this region. It is the 
purpose of our authorities here to open new stations at 
once in several of these inviting fields. 

Work was begun in this city four years ago, when 
Bishop Thoburn and Mr. Oldham came here, hired the 



294 A WINTER JN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

city hall, and held revival services. Numbers were 
soon converted of the English-speaking people and 
Europeans, a Methodist church was organized, Mr. Old- 
ham left in charge, and progress has ever since been 
made along all lines. Now, by action of the General 
Conference, this point is set off from the Bengal Con- 
ference, with which it had been connected, into a sepa- 
rate mission, having already a good right for a hope of 
its own. The English-speaking church has. a member- 
ship of about eighty and an audience of a hundred or 
more devoted, liberal people; a hne Sunday-school, 
good social meetings, a newly organized mission band 
for work outside, and all the plans of a vigorous church. 
There are now the following American missionaries : 
Mr. and Mrs. Oldham, Dr. and Mrs. West, Mr. and 
Mrs. Munson, Miss Blackmore, and Mr. Brewster. To 
come here during the year the following are under ap- 
pointment : Mr. and Mrs. Gray, and, for work on the 
Dutch Islands, a German doctor, whose wife is a dentist, 
and a young German tutor from the Kiel University. 
The mission also employs eight or ten teachers and 
Bible women obtained here. 

One of the trophies of this mission is the splendid 
school built up largely by Mr. and Mrs. Oldham. The 
school-house is located on land beside the church, the 
plot for both having been given by the city govern- 
ment for mission purposes. It is commodious, but not 
large enough for the rapidly increasing school. At one 
time the past year two hundred and ninety-seven pupils 
were in attendance, and the present year has opened 
with over three hundred. In addition to three Ameri- 
can teachers they use five or six others. The pupils are 
Europeans, Eurasians, Chinese — all who care to go. 
The income of the scliool has largely aided in defraying 



A WEEK AT SINGAPORE. 295 

the expenses of the mission. At the same time they 
teacli, the missionaries are learning the Malay language 
for a mission to that people, and Dr. West is just now 
beginning Chinese. Our Anglo-Chinese College at 
Foochow should send a j^reacher or two for opening up 
the Chinese mission at once. 

Schools are already started among the Tamils and 
Chinese, under the direction of Miss Blackmore, the 
appointee of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, 
who came here for mission work from that younger 
America, Australia, and is very successful. She has a 
Tamil girls' school of over twenty pupils, most of the 
expense being borne by a Tamil merchant. There is 
also a Tamil church of twelve members, foi' which we 
use a native pastor educated by the Lutherans, who 
also conducts our Tamil boys' school of over fifty pupils. 
These people are numerous at Singapore, and when led 
to Christianity from their heathenism they are very 
hearty in their service. 

Miss Blackmore also has an interesting work going 
on among the Chinese girls, one part being a school 
taught by a native, with nine pupils; besides these 
about thirty pupils, considered too old to go to school, 
are taught at their homes. One girl, eighteen years 
old, has just become engaged to be married, and has 
left off study to spend six months at embroidering a 
fancy waistband for her betrothed, as is the custom 
among Chinese girls. Miss Blackmore, with her 
assistants, visits about forty families, doing a kind 
of zenana work among them, reading and telling 
Bible stories, singing hymns, and trying to teach 
the women of Chinese and Tamil homes the truth 
of Christianity. This is all done with only the ex- 
pense to the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of 



296 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

five hundred and fifty dollars, I believe, the year past 
for assistants. 

Work among the Malays has been begun by the mis- 
sionaries with street-preaching, and by Captain Shella- 
bear, of the Royal Engineers, who, having learned the 
spirit of our work and workers, uses his leisure time 
helping our mission. With a hand-press he is also 
printing bits of tracts in that language, which the peo- 
ple are eagerly accepting and reading. Possibly our 
Church will hear more about this cultured Captain 
Shellabear as time goes on. 

An incident touching this Malay race is curious. 
Not long ago an Englishman on the island of Sumatra 
had some dealings with a man of that section of Malays 
called Dyaks, and found that in a feud one family had 
killed all of another one, and probably eaten them, save 
one young girl, whom the victors held as a slave, the 
owner being the Englishman's trader. He persuaded 
the native to give him the girl, whom he brought to 
Singapore and put into the family of one of our native 
Tamil people, where Miss Blackmore found her, and 
whom she found eager to accept Christianity, after the 
girl had been somewhat instructed in it by the Tamils. 
Not long ago she was baptized by Mr. Oldham. 

The whole outlook for Singapore is very fine. Prop- 
erty to the amount of thirty thousand dollars is owned, 
only a moiety of which has been of cost to the Mission- 
ary Society. It is mostly self-sustaining, the fifteen 
hundred dollars appropriated last year having been put 
into property. The success with the Chinese in start- 
ing English schools here encourages the superintendent 
tb think that at other places, as Malacca, Parak, and 
Penan g, success may be reached the same way. The 
peninsula is vastly rich in tin mines; much gold is 



A WEEK AT SINGAPORE. 297 

found, and other minerals, the mining of which is done 
by great colonies of Chinese, some of whom giow rich, 
and are eager to learn English and have it taught their 
children. Work can also be set going at once in Ba- 
tavia, in Borneo, and the Celebes. God has a duty for 
Methodism to ])erform in Malaysia, and a good begin- 
ning has been made. 

This point, almost touching the equator from the 
north, and just half-way around the world from Wash- 
ington, is thus penetrated by our Church. What is 
this region ? It is perpetual spring-time; green grass, 
rich foliage, brilliant flowers, singing-birds, dense 
woods, wonderful ferns, palms, bamboos, rattans, rich 
timbers, tropicar fruits and plants. It rains about one 
hundred and ninety days a year. It is seldom scorch- 
ing hot, and never cold. The island of Singapore, 
bought of a native sultan in 1819, is fifteen miles by 
forty, the city having about one hundred and sixty 
thousand people. The harbor is a most commodious 
one. It is probable that our missionaries from America 
can endure this climate better than that of India. It 
escapes the extremes of that country, the clouds and 
rains making a grateful relief from the glaring heat, 
while the nearness to the sea cools the air. The Euv 
glish flag pledges protection to missions. 



A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 



LETTER XXXVIII. 

A DAY UNDER THE EQUATOR. 

Before I left India I was promised a ride from 
Singapore to Jahore by our genial superintendent of 
missions at the former city, Rev. W. F. Oldham. To- 
day I had it, and am now cozily resting at his quiet 
home as I write of the new and interesting things seen. 
A coach runs once a day, and two of us succeeded in 
getting a seat with the driver, so that we could see 
every thing as we passed. Since Singapore was bought 
of the sultan of Jahore a great sea-port has grown 
up here, and the island of fifteen miles diameter is 
partly reduced to parks, fields, and plantations, though 
much of it is also covered with the wild luxuriance 
peculiar to the tropics. A superb road runs fourteen 
miles from Singapore to the water of the channel sepa- 
rating the island from the extreme southern tip of the 
Malay Peninsula. The British make good roads. In all 
their colonial possessions where I have been this is ap- 
parent. The old Romans were not better road-builders. 
The poor horses to-day went slowly, which was all the 
better for our sight-seeing. Along the first mile the 
strings of Chinese houses lined the road, their vegetable- 
gardens being the perfection of promise, the rows and 
beds and patches of one kind and another of products tell- 
ing what the citizens of Singapore could depend upon to 
eat. Almond-trees, peepul and other fig-trees, bananas, 
cocoa-nut, betel-nut and travelers' palms, and others 



A DAY UNDER THE EQUATOR. 299 

were along tlie road, also great plantations of the first 
and second palm. Besides their rich yield of nuts and 
oil I saw some cocoa-nuts that had sprouted, the incip- 
ient growth showing through the hole in the end. 
Several coifee plantations were just yielding their rich 
fruitage, the trees, about six or eight feet high, having 
a rich, glossy foliage like the orange, the fruit the size 
and color of Cape Cod cranberries, growing along the 
larger twigs and red when ripe, which the workers were 
now picking. Orchards of the very fine fruit mango- 
steen were also along the road, the trees the size and 
shape of New Hampshire apple-trees and the purple 
fruit not unlike smaller Baldwin apples in size and 
color. Under a thick rind is just a mouthful or two of 
the most exquisite creamy food. One of the acacias, 
the "flame of the forest," had great showy red blos- 
soms, in some instances on branches from which the 
leaves had fallen, in that way presenting a most curious 
appearance. The almond-tree is very like a rough-bark 
hickory, and the green rind of the nut is like that in- 
closing the hickory-nut. Pine-apple gardens were here 
and there, the plant growing like the yucca, the fruit 
inclosed in the center of the mass of thick, prickly 
leaves. How odd the arrowroot was, looking for all 
the world like a castor-bean plant, only the stem is 
jointed and crooked. 

The bamboo, at least three species of which we saw 
to-day, yields a succulent shoot — " greens " we should 
call it in America — the young shoot of the large roots, 
when a foot or so high, being most deliciously edible. 
We saw baskets of this peculiar food being borne into 
town strung across the shoulders of the coolies. At 
the stalls of hucksters was lying the wonderful jack- 
fruit, a huge green prickly thing as lai-ge as a pump- 



300 A WINTER m INDIA AND MALAYSIA. 

kill elongated, that grows on a tree looking like tiie 
American birch. The inside, clustering around great 
nut- like seeds, is a rich creamy product that one wants 
to eat again when once tasted. The durion and sour- 
sop, allied to this, are also huge, delicious fruits. Many 
of these torrid fruits have an acidity that is just enough 
to please one who likes that taste. The only tropical 
fruit they attempt to put into rivalry with the Ameri- 
can apple is the mango, and as that is a summer fruit 
I have not had a chance to try it, but then I know it 
could not equal our Yankee jjroduct ! People in India 
from America declare that, on the whole, American 
fruits are superior to those of this Eastern country. 
The oranges of Calcutta were most delicious, better, I 
think, than those of Florida; but that was the only 
locality where I found them superior. The papaya 
is a fruit almost exactly like a good-sized musk-melon, 
from a coarse tree like the American papaw. Bread- 
fruit grows sparingly here, of which I have not ob- 
tained a taste. It grows on a coarse tree resembling 
the papaya. 

The flowers seen to-day were not many or brilliant, 
save the "flame of the forest." Some creepers, the 
sensitive plant with little balls of deep pink blossoms 
the size of a bullet, then a plant blossoming like the 
laurel, the wild white jasmine, and a few others, made 
up the list. Roses do not flourish here, the growth all 
going to stalk. Such huge leaves as some of the trees 
bore I had never seen. I saw them, not of the palms, 
either, that were three feet long . by a foot wide, and 
one from a teak-tree in a yard at Jahore was twelve by 
sixteen inches. The leaves of tropical forests are nearly 
all thick and pulpy, to protect the trees from the intense 
heat. They are also very glossy. 



A DAT UNDER THE EQUATOR. SOI 

The ferns took me a complete captive. Such luxu- 
riance of these I had never before seen. Tlie maiden- 
hair, or Adiant'wn in America, is here represented by a 
dozen species, and is higlily prized and constantly cul- 
tivated for its beauty. One like the American brake, 
another like the shield fern, were common, though of 
larger growth than in New Hampshire. Another, with 
a beautiful frond much divided, had become a vine^ so 
it cre23t up twelve or twenty feet among the lower 
branches of the trees, as did a second species of smaller 
leaf. In some cases great banks of ferns would over- 
ride all other growth and make a pile of luxuriance that 
would be very fine. Huge fronds in other cases stand 
six feet high. Some were entire, yet six feet high by 
six inches wide. Numbers were epiphytic, clinging to 
the sides or forks of the trees, thus making great 
masses of verdure high away from the ground. One 
of this kind, the stage-horn fern, is especially beautiful 
in the branching of its fronds. A few of the great 
tree-ferns, spreading ten or fifteen feet with their di- 
vided leaflets, I also saw. But this climate does not 
seem fully adapted to them. One is constantly sur- 
prised at the vast number of plants growing on the 
trees as parasites, creepers, or epiphytes. Here and 
there some giant creeper will cover a tree completely, so 
in the column of green you see not the foliage of the 
tree but of its enveloping addition. The rattan, though 
having leaves like some of the palms, is an arrant thief 
of this kind. Having hooked prickles on the length- 
ened midrib of its leaf, it can hook to leaves and trees, 
and so in time completely overpower its supporters. I 
saw them cut ofl: at tlie root in some of the forests to- 
day to save the good trees. It is reported that not far 
from here they pulled one down that they traced for 



so 2 A WINTER m INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

half a mile. They are very much dreaded by garden- 
ers. As we 23assed an inlet of water I saw how the 
space of water was crowded upon by the strong growth 
of plants, for the roots of encroaching trees pushed far 
out into it. The large trees of the wild forest grow 
very tall, with long stems like those of rock-maple in a 
primitive American forest. 

Not many song-birds enliven these deep forests and 
shadowy orchards. The temperate zones furnish much 
finer singers. Still a few sparrows, now and then a 
hawk, some starlings and others were flitting about. 
Just at night, on our return, Ave heard some with notes 
that were strange to me. After dark some kind of a 
bird had a far-reaching note that was not unmusical. 

At Jahore in the native sultanate we visited a mill 
run by Mr. Rajah Meldrum — a 2>rince from Scotland, 
made nobleman by the sultan. This mill runs seven- 
teen saws, has two hundred and fifty men, mostly Chi- 
nese, and cuts out lumber from the tropical woods, 
heavy, tough, strong, aromatic. Rajah Meldrum's 
home, built on a gentle hill overlooking the straits be- 
tween the main-land and Singapore, is as pleasantly sit- 
uated as could well be imagined. About it is a growth 
of palms, bananas, bamboos, teak, and other tropical 
trees, while inside are the amenities of European com- 
fort and civilization. After a dinner the more enjoyed 
for the ride of sixteen miles to reach Jahore, Mr. Mun- 
son, of the mission, and I returned. What did we have 
of tropical fruits to eat ? Pine-apples, bananas, sour- 
sop; and to drink, the water from cocoa-nut, with rice, 
not dry, but soft and mucilaginous. It was a day for 
learning things such as seldom comes to a Yankee. 



QUALIFICATIONS FOR MISSIONARIES. 803 



LETTER XXXIX. 

QUAIilFICATIOlSrS FOR SUCCESSFUL MISSIONARIES. 

When among the missionaries I was told many 
things I ought to remember, and among the most vivid 
things impressed upon my mind was the opinion of 
those longest in the field as to the kind of men and 
women the work wanted. 

There was great urgency that the people sent out 
should be those designing to devote their whole life to 
the missionary field. Only by such a consecration 
could they make efficient workers. It takes several 
years for any one to become familiar with the native 
tongue of the country or tribe to which he goes, very 
few indeed being able to teach or preach effectively in 
less than three years, and more often five years are 
passed before one can do effective work. Besides the 
language it takes years to learn the spirit and beliefs 
and habitudes of the people so as to do most efficient 
work among them. In India a few English-speaking 
congregations need pastors in that tongue who can as 
readily enter on successful work at once on getting 
there as can be done in America, and while such pas- 
tors are rated as in the mission field they are really 
only in contact with the work, not fully in it. William 
Taylor, when first organizing these churches, considered 
them an entering wedge to further work among the 
natives, though the people generally reached by our 
Church in such congregations were at the first in a most 



§04 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

lamentable religious condition, having been neglected 
by the people of other missions until their case was 
almost as bad as the natives themselves. Bishop Tho- 
burn, writing of the difficulty to get pastors for those 
congregations, as many have gone out to India, served 
these places a short time, and then returned, says he 
considers the English-speaking work to be the most 
important. 

Those who consider their consecration to mission 
work perpetual are not so easily discouraged by delays, 
poor apparent results, sickness, or the uncongenial sur- 
roundings. Of course, a few people cannot endure the 
climate of those countries, that of India and Malaysia 
especially being very exhausting, so that in some cases 
the only hope of saving one's life is permanently to 
leave the country. He who finds himself devoted to 
such a work falls into it so easily by the grace of God 
that the enthusiasm and passion for his glory among 
the heathen lift him far above the lesser issues. 

Another condition named was people with the pres- 
ence and power of the Holy Spirit. The minister at 
home lacking these does not succeed in building per- 
manently in the Lord's cause, nor does the one without 
them succeed in the mission work. There are hard con- 
ditions in the heathen world to be overcome, long he- 
reditary beliefs to be changed, firm crystallized preju- 
dices to be broken up, a terribly depraved human nature 
to be met and dealt with, and in most races to whom we 
go a subtle power and habit of deception that appalls 
one as he learns its strength. Here mere human 
power can with some success deal with ignorance and 
some other elements of heathenism, but it fails igno- 
bly when alone it tries to deal with these spiritual 
depravities. Only he can succeed whose highest pow- 



QUALIFICATIONS FOR MISSIONARIES. 305 

ers and hardest work are multiplied and directed by 
the Holy Spirit. To the" missionary the Spirit is truly 
his sword and aggressive weapon. In all Asiatic coun- 
tries he is to meet men of subtile reasoning powers, 
men skilled in defending their own beliefs and ways. 
The missionary working with much of the Spirit's 
enduement can best lead the convicted heathen to 
accept the care and help of God that he so much needs 
in his passage out of darkness into the light. The 
Bible can best be taught and its teachings best received 
under the power and light of the Spirit. All the bene- 
fits to a teacher or preacher in Christian countries com- 
ing from a great and full baptism of the Spirit are also 
fully given to the missionary. 

The superintendent of the Malaysia Mission assured 
me one day what successful men in India urged upon 
me before, that there was little use to have any but 
kind-hearted people come out. There is such an easy 
chance to be domineering and to grow harsh under the 
exhausting climate and irritating conditions of the 
work and people that one to succeed must be saved far 
enough to make him sweet-hearted toward all men. 
The natives are very susceptible to kind treatment, since 
they receive so much of the opposite kind from most 
of the civil and military officers. Some of the brutali- 
ties practiced upon them by both men and women 
that I saw during my few months among them made 
my republican Christian blood boil. The natives can 
easily see the difference of treatment accorded them 
by the missionaries and by others. From what I saw 
and heard I judge that there is room for improve- 
ment in some cases even by missionaries themselves 
in the treatment of those people. But they have 
come to know that they are receiving the best treat- 
20 



306 A WINTER IN INDIA AND MALA YSIA. 

ment by far from the missionaries that they have ever 
obtained. 

High culture is an important factor in a successful 
missionary, but of less demand than any one of the 
qualifications already named. If one has studied a lan- 
guage or two besides the English it will, in addition to 
the culture obtained by it, help in learning the vernac- 
ulars. Yet one can succeed if he has other necessary 
elements of success who has only a good English edu- 
cation. 



THE END. 



